The Rev. Frank Burnett Mangum

With family and friends gathered round him, The Reverend Frank Burnett Mangum, 89, departed the church militant and entered the church triumphant Sunday, June 26, 2022, from his home in Woodway. Funeral services will be 10:00 a.m. Wednesday, July 13, at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, 515 Columbus Ave, in Waco. Burial will follow at Oakwood Cemetery. Visitation will take place at Wilkirson-Hatch-Bailey Funeral Home, 4 – 6:00 p.m. Tuesday, June 12. Frank was born October 12, 1932, in Natchez, Mississippi, to Frank Foster Mangum and Billie Benton Mangum Clinton. Frank's chief passions as a young man were for God and English literature. Frank earned his bachelor's degree in English at Millsaps College (class of 1954), during which time he wrote for the Clarion Ledger in Jackson, Mississippi. While at Millsaps, he served as editor-in-chief for the school's publication THE STYLUS and was president of Kappa Alpha Literary Society. His love of God and literature spread to a love of God's Word and all things related to the Episcopal Church - especially its roots in the Church of England. Following his undergraduate studies, he completed a Master of Divinity in 1957 at Sewanee, the University of the South. In 1965, he completed a Masters of Sacred Theology at Sewanee. Frank later served on Sewanee's board of trustees. Beginning in 1961, he began service as associate rector at St. Paul's, Waco, where he met Dorothea Caskey Mangum with whom he fell in love and married in 1966. Following that, he variously served as rector at St. Andrews Episcopal Church, Rogers, Arkansas; Church of the Holy Comforter, Angleton, Texas; St. Paul’s, Houston; Christ Church, Nacogdoches, Texas; and he also served as chaplain at St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital in Houston. He and Dorothea retired to Waco in 1996, and he served at St. Paul's in various capacities. During his "retired" years, he became a mentor for Education for Ministry (EFM). Hosted by Sewanee, EFM is a four-year international program in group reflection and study, supporting formation for Christian ministry in daily life. He had a great deal of enthusiasm and affection for EFM. The men's prayer breakfast at St. Paul's was another of his great joys. This band of brothers met weekly for breakfast, Bible study, and prayer. Good-natured trash-talking took place amongst the members during breakfast at every meeting. The good-natured banter always gave way to serious and heartfelt studies of the scripture and prayer. In addition to his love of Dorothea and ministry, Frank was also a huge fan and historian of baseball and announced many games across the South. Many of Frank’s friends will be surprised to learn that he was an aficionado of circuses. In addition to his wife, Dorothea Caskey Mangum, Frank was preceded in death by his father, Frank Foster Mangum; his mother, Billie Benton Mangum Clinton; uncle, Charles Mangum; and cousins, James Alfred Mangum and Zeno Lowery Mangum, Jr. Frank is survived by his cousins, Jane Elizabeth Mangum Hederman, of Jackson, and Martha Glenn Mangum Douglas of Clinton; and numerous nephews, nieces, and their children. The family would like to thank the compassionate caregivers of Right at Home, particularly Trisha Benson who was with him virtually every weekday for a year and a half, laboring with him to keep him walking so as to make his quality of life the best it could be. Pallbearers will be the members of the men’s prayer/breakfast group. It was Frank and Dorothea's promise to each other that they would do everything they could to live at home all of their days, one supporting the other, depending on whose final needs arose first. He heroically did this for Dorothea in her last weeks in 2017, and during the five years that followed Dorothea's death, he always said, "I'd like the last time I leave this house to be feet first." And that's just what he did. High five, Uncle Frank you did it! Well done, good and faithful servant! Behold your Savior - and here comes Dory - it looks like she has a list! Memorials may be made to St. Paul's Episcopal Church of Waco, Texas, Millsaps College of Jackson, Mississippi, and Sewanee, the University of the South, of Sewanee, Tennessee.