Lowell Eugene McCoy

Lowell Eugene McCoy, Sr. was born on April 10, 1928 at home on the family farm in Knox County, OH, the first of four children, & departed this life on Saturday, May 21, 2022 at the age of 94 at the Ridgemere Assisted Living Facility in Conway, AR where he & his wife resided for the last 2.5 years. Mr. McCoy’s education began in a one-room, one-teacher school. He graduated from the Fredericktown High School in Fredericktown, OH in 1946. He planned to stay on the farm with his parents & make farming his career. But about a year after his high school graduation, Lowell became a Christian and decided to attend the Cincinnati Bible Seminary in Cincinnati, OH to study for vocational ministry. Early in his junior year, he met an Akron, OH high school senior, Mary Lou Rector, on a blind date. Years later, Lowell often said that “we met on a blind date, but I wasn’t blind.” Mary Lou had already decided to attend CBS before meeting Lowell. The couple started dating during the fall semester. Mary Lou graduated at the end of the fall semester & started her freshman year at CBS in January of 1950. The couple married on July 21, 1950. Lowell’s death was two months shy of his & Mary Lou’s 72nd anniversary.

Lowell received a BA degree from the Cincinnati Bible Seminary in 1951. Mary Lou received her “Mrs” degree. After graduation, the McCoys moved to their first full-time ministry in Kentucky where their first child, Rhonda, was born. Their next three ministries were in Ohio. In each of those three ministries another child was added to the family - Gene, Bill, & Nancy. In 1964 the family of six next moved to perhaps their most fruitful ministry with the Westside Christian Church (now Forum Christian Church) in Columbia, MO. After serving there seven years, Lowell raised support to assist a move to Mt. Holly, NJ to work with a small congregation there. After six years in New Jersey, the McCoys ministered to churches in Missouri, Oklahoma, & Arkansas where Lowell retired at the age of 79. A few years before his retirement, Lowell returned to school & earned a master’s degree from his college alma mater. In 2018 he was awarded the Sword & Trowel by the Christian Restoration Association.

Lowell’s life began in a simple, drafty farm home with a water pump outside, an outhouse down the path, baths in a washtub on the kitchen floor, the only heat source being a wood stove, and transportation was in a horse-drawn buggy. As a youth, he was wakened before sunrise every morning to milk cows and do other chores by lantern light before eating breakfast then walking to school. Lowell worked the soil with a team of horses. Before he departed the farm for Bible college at 19, electricity reached their farm and his dad bought his first tractor, a John Deere. Though he never returned to farming, Lowell remained partial to the John Deere brand, logo, and colors. Gift givers always knew anything with John Deere on it would be appreciated. While in college, Lowell learned the trade of masonry work and pouring/finishing concrete. Laying blocks & bricks and doing concrete not only provided some income at critical times, but also were useful skills for construction projects for churches that he served as well as for friends and for his adult children. Churches Lowell served knew he was quite willing to work with his hands to support his family and to serve the Lord. Those close to Lowell knew that his penmanship was perfect and that he was a stickler for correct grammar.

Lowell was preceded in death by his parents, Lyle & Mildred McCoy, his only sister, Doris Bushong, & one of his two brothers, Caryle. One brother, Donald & wife, Wanda, (Willard, OH) survives. Also surviving are Lowell’s wife, Mary Lou (Conway, AR), and their four children – daughter Rhonda Anthony & husband Leroy (Columbia, MO), son Gene & wife Becky (Harrisburg, MO), son Bill & wife Kay (Sherwood, AR), and daughter Nancy Bond & husband Gordon (Conway, AR). Also surviving are 15 grandchildren and 19 greatgrandchildren.

A celebration of life & faith service will be held on Tuesday, May 24, 10:00 am, at the Robinson & Center Church of Christ, 1505 Robinson Ave., Conway, AR 72034 in the fellowship hall. The McCoy family greatly appreciates the staff of the Ridgemere Assisted Living Facility in Conway, AR, especially the memory care staff, and Hospice Home Care of Conway. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to Show-Me Christian Youth Home in LaMonte, MO (showmehelpingkids.com or POB 6, Lamonte, MO 65337) and/or Central Christian College of the Bible (cccb.edu or 911 E. Urbandale Dr., Moberly, MO 65270).