R. Maines Rawls

RAWLS, R. Maines – Age 96, passed from this life to his heavenly home on the 28th of October 2012. He was born on the 12th of July 1916, to Langley Augustus Rawls and Ella Rooks Rawls in Lake Butler, Florida. He grew up in Jacksonville, Florida where he began cultivating his love for music and fine-tuning the God-given talent he found in expressing that love through the keys of a piano. At 16 years of age, Maines became ordained as a minister, and as a young adult he furthered his education in Christian service, matriculating with a degree in Theology from Mercer University in Macon, GA. The biblical knowledge and personal faith he gleaned during those years would serve as the foundation for the belief system that anchored the rest his life and guided his journey of faithful service throughout his career in the ministry. In August of 1939, at the age of 23, he married the love of his life, Frederica Roberts Rawls, with whom he shared the next 73 years of his life. Maines went on to serve in the Georgia Baptist Convention, the Alabama Baptist Convention, spent almost 60 years as a resident of Brentwood, TN, and retired after almost 40 years of service with Lifeway Christian Resources, was a former member of Triune Baptist Church in Williamson County, and was a current member of Anchor Baptist Church in Lexington, Kentucky where he and Frederica have now resided for the last several years. Of his many musical accomplishments, his most noteworthy that will be echoed down through the ages, will be the words he penned for hymnal publication in 1968, Take My Life, Lead Me Lord. The ending stanza reads, “Make My Life Useful To Thee,” six words that exemplify the life of R. Maines Rawls. Those left behind to cherish his memory are his devoted wife, Frederica Rawls; daughter, Chandra (Joe) Jarboe; son, Jim Rawls (and his dear friend, Debra Bauer); two grandchildren, Joe (DeAndra) Jarboe and Janet (Larry) Mead; and six great-grandchildren, Kelly Lynn Jarboe, Kendall Jarboe, Ben Jarboe, Brett Jarboe, Kirsten Mead and Spencer Mead. A Celebration of Life service is to be conducted on Friday, the 2nd of November 2012 at one o’clock in the afternoon in the chapel of Brentwood-Roesch-Patton Funeral Home with Rev. Doug O’Rear officiating. Friends are invited to gather with the family thirty minutes prior to the service. A private family entombment will commence following the service at Woodlawn Memorial Park’s Cross Mausoleum, located at 660 Thompson Lane, Nashville, TN 37204. Arrangements by: Brentwood-Roesch-Patton Funeral Home, 9010 Church Street East, Brentwood, TN 37027. (615)-373-3040. www.brentwood-roesch-pattonfuneralhome.com