Rev. Glen R. Travis

Glen Ray ''G.R.'' Travis was born in Walthall County, near Tylertown, Mississippi, on August 8, 1938, to Tom J. and Lena Dillon Travis. He was the youngest son and had four sisters and five brothers.

His family attended Stateline United Pentecostal Church, Tylertown, Mississippi, pastored by the late Reverend Earl Carney. It was in this church that Glen Ray received the Holy Ghost on June 22, 1952, under the ministry of the late Reverend Arlie Holmes. In 1955, at the age of seventeen, Brother Travis heard the call of God to preach the gospel.

On February 1, 1958, Brother Travis married the love of his life, Delilah Keene. They were blessed with three daughters and ten grandchildren.

In September 1958, shortly after his twentieth birthday, he was elected to his first pastorate at the Second United Pentecostal Church of Bogalusa, Louisiana.

Being a Mississippian at heart, Brother Travis returned to his home state in February 1960, where he assumed the pastorate of Powell’s Grove United Pentecostal Church, Jayess, Mississippi, pastoring there until November 1963.

In June 1968, he became pastor of Pleasant Hill United Pentecostal Church and served there until April 1971. In April 1971, Brother Travis assumed the pastorate of First United Pentecostal Church of Vicksburg, Mississippi, where he remained for 18 years, resigning in August 1989, to serve full-time as Mississippi District Superintendent.

Brother Travis served for a total of twenty one and one-half years. In May 2003, he retired as District Superintendent and was later asked to serve as pastor at Heritage Apostolic Church in Holly Springs, Mississippi, where he stayed from 2005 until 2007.

After his retirement as Mississippi District Superintendent, the honor of becoming an Honorary Member was bestowed upon him by both the Mississippi District Board and the UPCI General Board. He was a member of the Mississippi District Board for a total of thirty-four years and the UPCI General Board for approximately twenty-eight years.

Brother Travis did not limit himself to ministry related service. He served on the Board of Nursing under Governor Cliff Finch, and was honored on several occasions to bring the invocation at the legislative opening sessions and for Governor Kirk Fordice’s inaugural day prayer service.

On the occasion of his sixtieth birthday, based on his life experience, Brother Fred Foster presented him with a Doctorate of Theology from Twin Cities University of West Monroe.

On September 7, 2009, after a four-month battle with metastatic cancer, Brother Travis completed his work on earth and moved into the heavenly realm where he met the one Lord and Savior he loved so much.

Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour stated, ''Mississippi has lost a great Christian leader.''

In the words of Mississippi District Superintendent, David Tipton, who considered Brother Travis to be his mentor, ''Passion was what made him a leader. There was no insincerity in him at all. He was real. He never put his family on the back shelf; they were on his calendar before anyone else.''

He was a leader of leaders, a man of impeccable character, known for his wit and wisdom, but first of all, a Christian in the truest sense of the word. As the epitaph inscribed on his monument reads, ''He served his generation well.''