John Thomas Bryant, Jr. stepped into the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ on Thursday, April 7, 2022, at Bay Area Hospital, Corpus Christi, Texas, after a long illness. He was born May 15, 1946, to John T. and Naomi Burke Bryant in Harlingen, Texas where he graduated Harlingen High School in 1964. From 1966 until 1970, he served in the U.S. Navy as an Aviation Machinist Mate 3rd Class aboard Naval Air Station, Rota, Spain, the USS America, the USS John F. Kennedy, and Da Nang Airbase, Da Nang, Vietnam. He was an Automotive Machinist, a trade taught to him by his dad. He held a Pastoral Theology degree from San Diego Bible College. As he attested, the most important day of his life was November 11, 1962, when as a rebellious 16-year-old, he bowed the knee of his heart and received the Lord Jesus Christ as his Lord and Saviour.
Surviving are his wife of fifty-three years, Naoma (Shepard) Bryant, their daughter Amy (John) Brewer of Porter, IN, and two granddaughters, Tiffany (Andrew) Brewer Oxendine of Bucyrus, OH, and Emily Brewer, his sister, Vila Bryant Huggins, of Frisco, Texas, and many cousins, nieces, and nephews.
John was a life-long student of the Word of God. He pastored churches in Rota, Spain, Rossville, Georgia, San Fernando de Henares, Spain, and Corpus Christi and Portland, TX. He was pastor of Grace Baptist Church, in Portland for twenty-nine years until June 30, 2021, when his failing health forced him to retire. II Chronicles 31:21 And in every work that he began in the service of the house of God, and in the law, and in the commandments, to seek his God, he did it with all his heart, and prospered.
Pallbearers are: Andrew Oxendine, Paul Kuhlman, Timothy Kuhlman, Jordon Gallagher, James Oxendine, and Mark Anthony Brock.
The viewing will be Monday afternoon, 5:00 pm, April 18, 2022, at Memory Gardens Funeral Home.
Graduation Service will be on Tuesday, April 19, 2022, at 9:00 am at Memory Gardens Funeral Home, 8200 Old Brownsville Rd, Corpus Christi, TX 78415, and interment following at the Coastal Bend Veterans Cemetery.
Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.MemoryGardensFuneralHome.com for the Bryant family.