Raburn Lewis Stevens of Ft Worth passed on March 15, 2018, at the age of 81 after a 3 month struggle with a subdural hematoma injury and infection. Raburn was the eldest of three children born to an East Texas oil field worker father who managed to attract and marry Raburn’s saint of a mother, known to her family as “Ma” and loved by all. He did not let his humble beginnings stop him from becoming an elegant gentleman who led an eminently successful life. He was a lifelong minister who felt the call young and was first licensed to preach at Hainesville Baptist Church in Mineola, Texas at 16. After graduation from Mineola High School in 1955, Raburn worked his way through Hardin Simmons University, graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in English and Bible Studies in 1960. He continued his education at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary where in earned a Bachelor’s in Divinity in 1965 and then a Master of Religious Education in 1967. From 1967 to 1970 he was the pastor of Candler Park Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia. Feeling the call to serve his nation more directly, he joined the U.S. Army and was directly commissioned to Captain as a chaplain in 1970. He was promptly shipped off to Vietnam where he served in the famous 101st airborne division, the “Screaming Eagles”, from 1971 to 1972. As a combat chaplain he won the Bronze Star during his service with 101st, but it was typical of his modesty that he never told his family that he had earned the nation’s 4th highest award for valor. The commendation was only discovered among his papers just before his death. Raburn continued to a full 22 year career as an Army chaplain, earning two more Master’s degrees in divinity and counseling along the way. After many postings around the world, he retired as a Lieutenant Colonel in 1991. He worked as a real estate agent in Atlanta for several years before moving to Fort Worth and joining Trinity Episcopal Church, where he remained a devoted and an admired member for the rest of his life. He was not only a man of God and a true gentleman, but a proud soldier who wished to be buried in uniform at Dallas-Fort Worth National Cemetery. As kind and gentle as he was, he was a fighter if need be. At age 60 he suffered a home invasion attack by two intruders in the middle of the night, putting up a ferocious fight through most of the rooms in the house before he was finally beaten unconscious and left for dead. Though caught by surprise and outweighed by about three to one, he was always embarrassed that he had not been able to win that fight, figuring that 135 pounds of retired Army colonel should have overcome 400 pounds of criminal attackers. He survived by his two younger sisters, seven nieces and nephews who loved him dearly, and many friends in Ft Worth and around the world who all felt very privileged to have known him.
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