1884-1956

Biographical Sketch Of The Life Of G.C. Brewer

    Grover Cleveland Brewer was born December 25, 1884, at Pulaski in Giles County, Tennessee. His parents were Hiram and Virginia Arietta Brewer. He had two brothers, Charles R. Brewer, gospel preacher, and teacher at David Lipscomb University for a number of years and Robert Larimore Brewer.

    Schools he attended included Kimberlin Heights, Nashville Bible School, University of Texas, Austin College, where he received the B.A. degree. Later Harding College and Abilene Christian College each awarded Brewer with a LL.D. degree. He was also honored later with the Carnegie Medal.

    On October 24, 1911, he married Mary Elizabeth Hall. To this union, one girl, Virginia Elizabeth, was born.

    He began preaching at the age of 16 in Florence, Alabama, and also preached in a number of congregations around Florence. His ministry took him to many churches in many States. Some of the churches where he preached were: Chattanooga, Tennessee; Columbia, Tennessee; Winchester, Tennessee; Austin, Texas; Cleburne, Texas; Sherman, Texas; Union Avenue in Memphis, Tennessee; Jackson Avenue in Memphis, Tennessee; and Central in Los Angeles, California; and Lubbock, Texas. He preached in all the States in the Union except the States along the Canadian border.

    Brewer was, by nature, a controversialist and he enjoyed and felt at home in any sort of controversy. He ranged through its whole field and ever acquitted himself as a champion whether his opponent was the worldly-wise Judge Ben Lindsay (whom he debated many years ago in Memphis on the subject of Companionate Marriage), or D. N. Jackson, the skilled Baptist debater, or some of the hobby-riding brothers among us. For more than 40 years, his booming voice and his trenchant pen were employed in the defense of that which his great heart and active mind believed to be right. In the pulpit, on the lecture platform, and in the classroom, he was equally at home. He ever exhibited that rare quality of being able to differ with others and, at the same time, to respect and love them.

    During his last years, and until almost the moment of death, he was chiefly active in, and found his greatest satisfaction from, editing the Voice of Freedom, a paper designed to awaken the people in and out of the church to the threat of Catholicism and Communism, both religiously and politically inclined. It is our conviction that the stature of G. C. Brewer will continue to increase with the passing of the years; and that he will take his place, in the final estimate of history, among the greatest of recent generations.

    Brewer had an excellent speaking voice and, in most places where he worked with a congregation, had a weekly radio program. Some of the places were KFYO in Lubbock, Texas, and WHBI in Memphis, Tennessee. In addition to his regular local work with a congregation, he usually held about twelve meetings each year. He was a prolific writer and some of his books included "The Model Church," "Brewer's Sermons," "Contending For the Faith," "As Touching Those Who Were Once Enlightened," "Forty Years On The Firing Line," and many pamphlets and other books.

    Brewer wrote an autobiography during the last months of his life. He died June 9, 1956, at Searcy, Arkansas. He is survived by one daughter, Mrs. Perry Mason, two grandchildren, six great-grandchildren. Funeral service was conducted by George S. Benson of Searcy, Arkansas, and brother Ijams of Memphis, Tennessee. Funeral was held in Memphis, Tennessee, and burial was in the Memorial Park in Memphis.

-From In Memoriam, Gussie Lambert, Shreveport, LA, pages 34,35