A Sea Of Red

Televangelist Rex Humbard Dies at 88

1 day ago

ATLANTIS, Fla. (AP) — The Rev. Rex Humbard, a former itinerant preacher whose televangelism ministry once reached more parts of the globe than any other religious program, died Friday a family spokeswoman said. He was 88. Humbard died of natural causes at a South Florida hospital near his Lantana home, family spokeswoman Kathy Scott said.

"He was the ultimate role model in showing love and caring about other people over and above himself," his grandson Rex Humbard III said.

The son of evangelists, Humbard evolved his ministry from revivals across the country to a permanent home in Akron, Ohio, and television. He realized the potential of the new medium in the early 1950s and became known to millions by the 1970s. But financial overreaching eventually eroded his organization.

As with his contemporaries Billy Graham and Oral Roberts, Humbard's ministry began to flourish in the post-World War II era.

"The vast majority of people do not go to church and the only way we can reach them is through TV," he said in his autobiographical book, "Miracles in My Life."

"We must go into their homes — into their hearts — to bring them the gospel of Jesus Christ."

His bio, from Wikipedia:

Alpha Rex Emmanuel Humbard (August 13, 1919 – September 21, 2007) was a well-known American television evangelist whose Cathedral of Tomorrow show was shown on over 600 stations at the peak of its popularity.

Born in Little Rock, Arkansas, to Pentecostal evangelists,[1] Rex Humbard was one of the first evangelists to build a ministry that emphasized television programming, beginning in 1952. Humbard's $4 million Cathedral of Tomorrow church in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, a suburb of nearby Akron, was built in 1958 specifically to accommodate television equipment, crew, and chorus as well as seating for 5,400 people.[2]

Humbard's television programs featured gospel music such as the popular Cathedral Quartet. Humbard's wife, Maude Aimee, and his children were also often featured on the programs. His ministry eventually extended to Canada, Europe, the Middle East, Far East, Australia and Latin America, giving it a worldwide reach of 8 million viewers, greater than any of his competitors by the late 1970s.[1] In Brazil, he attracted large crowds at the giant soccer stadium in São Paulo for weeks. Humbard officiated at Elvis Presley's funeral, as Presley had been an admirer of Humbard's ministry.[3][4]

Humbard was called "One of the Top 25 Principle Architects of the American Century" by U.S. News & World Report.

Humbard began to build a rotating tower restaurant at his Cathedral of Tomorrow complex, which was also slated to hold a transmission tower for his planned local TV station on Channel 55, WCOT. When Humbard was given the opportunity to go on more radio stations throughout South America to spread Christianity, construction on the restaurant tower ceased. The tower has since been purchased by a local businessman and is now used as a cellular phone tower.

Humbard's son Rex, Jr. succeeded his father in the ministry after the family moved to Florida in 1982. But Humbard's television ministry was influential in promoting an independent Christian television station in Canton, Ohio, WDLI (Channel 17), which later was purchased by the Trinity Broadcasting Network as their Cleveland-area station.

The rest of Humbard's Cathedral of Tomorrow complex was sold in 1994 to television evangelist Ernest Angley, along with the Channel 55 license, which was used by Angley's Winston Broadcasting Network division for the current Akron-licensed and Cuyahoga Falls-based CW affiliate, WBNX-TV.

After retiring to Lantana, Florida in the 1980s with his wife, Maude Aimee (whom he married in 1942),[1] Humbard was still often seen on television broadcasts and at public appearances preaching Christianity. He wrote two autobiographies, Miracles in My Life and, in 2006, The Soul Winning Century, The Humbard Family Legacy.[3] In April 2007, he was inducted into the Arkansas Walk of Fame.

Rex Humbard died in Atlantis, Florida of congestive heart failure, following hospitalization in August 2007.[2]

I suspect that not many of you younger folk on here know who this guy was. But growing up in Ohio I was very familiar with him. He was my grandmother's "favorite TV preacher" as she called him.

To be honest, I didn't realize he was still alive. I guess we shouldn't make assumptions.

just think of all the giants of the faith that have been lost this year...you think God might be trying to tell us something in America?

That the human body in its present state is not designed to last more than 80, 90 years except for the genetically gifted?

While it is sad that many are passing away, I submit that there are plenty of other voices out there carrying the mantle onward...


Change is inevitable - except from a vending machine. ~Robert C. Gallagher