Samuel Fletcher Longbottom, Jr.

Samuel Fletcher Longbottom, Jr. October 2, 1927-October 19, 2016 Rev. Samuel F. Longbottom, Jr., age 89, passed away October 19, 2016, in Tomball, Texas. Services will be 10:30 a.m., Monday, October 24, at Wilkirson-Hatch-Bailey Funeral Home in Waco, Texas, with Rev. Lewis Myers officiating. Burial will follow at Waco Memorial Park, followed by a reception in Spencer Parlor at Columbus Avenue Baptist Church to which friends and family are invited. Sam was born in Gainesville, Florida, on October 2, 1927, and grew up in Avon Park, Florida. He graduated from Baylor University with a B.A. in May of 1950 and married Marian L. Cross of Waco on May 26, 1950. He received his M.A. from Baylor in 1952 and a B.Div. from Southwestern Theological Seminary in Fort Worth in 1954, replaced with M. Div. in 1973. He and Marian were appointed in 1954 as missionaries with the Foreign Mission Board, SBC. Their first assignment was to the Territory of Hawaii where he pastored several churches. In 1961, their heart for missions led them to join other young missionary families working in a newly-started Baptist mission in the country of Vietnam. In 1976, their missionary assignment and calling became ministry to the people of Taiwan. Officially they retired from the International Mission Board (IMB) in 1990, but many years of ministry followed. Sam worked at Baylor, then as Minister of Missions at Columbus Avenue Baptist Church, and later (after moving in 2000 to Magnolia, Texas) in missions sponsored by First Baptist Church Conroe and as a workplace chaplain with Marketplace Ministries. First and foremost, Sam loved God. He loved his country, and he loved each one of his family, friends, and co-workers. He liked sports in general but especially the game of golf. He liked all things Baylor, and he was especially proud that one of his sons, Dr. Thomas Longbottom, is now teaching at Baylor. He loved great music, especially piano and organ music, and he sang as a part of many choirs. “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.” Sam was preceded in death by his father, Samuel, and mother, Emily; father and mother-in-law, Marrero and Viola Cross; brother-in-law, Joe Rice; and daughter-in-law, Donna Longbottom. He is survived by his beloved wife of 66+ years, Marian; children, Sam and wife, Janet, Jim and wife, Syrisse, Lynda and husband, Terry Kunkel, Dan, Tom and wife, Alison, and Terry and wife, Tara; grandchildren, Andrea, Scott and wife, Carla, Stephen, Tyler and wife, Laura, Taylor and husband, Joshua, Madison, Jakob, Abigail, Kelin, Benjamin, and Thea; five great grandchildren, Ethan, Elyse, Caleb, Audrey, and Jackson. He is also survived by his precious sister, Lynn Rice, her daughter, Nora and husband, Rich, and their two children, and her daughter, Allison and husband, Jeff, and their two children; and many other relatives, friends and dear members of church and mission families in diverse places, including from Florida to Baylor to Hawaii to Vietnam to Taiwan to Waco to Conroe to Magnolia, Texas. Pallbearers will be the five sons, Sam, Jim, Dan, Tom, Terry, and son-in-law, Terry Kunkel. As a suggestion and in lieu of flowers, memorial gifts may be made to the International Mission Board at P.O. Box 6767 in Richmond, VA 23230-0767 or online at imb.org, Samaritan’s Purse, or to the Building Fund of FBC Conroe. The family invites you to leave a message or memory on our “Tribute Wall” at www.WHBfamily.com.