it was a long journey for you but you will be missed so very much this should have been said earlier but your funeral was not very long ago. Ellis V Lumpkins is my great grandpa and he served 24 years in the air force and he is such an inspiration. he wrote many books and is one of the greatest authors i know. i wish i have more memories with you but for now i will keep the moments i did have with you precious and close to my heart. Rest In Peace Ellis V Lumpkins 1929-2018

Trying to put my Papaw into words feels ironic in a way as he was a man of so few of them but when he used them he made them count. Where you could ask someone about their mothers and they would go on and on, my Pappaw, when I asked him about her once, simply said, “my mother was a good woman” and he didn’t say any more. He didn’t need to: the warmth and depth of his delivery was testament enough for how he still felt about her even to that moment. 

Pappaw also had a great dark wit that I take great pride in sharing with him and my dad, his son, Ellis V. Lumpkins II.  

I’ll always remember being a little girl and having Pappaw include me in his getting ready for dinner routine. The smell of his cherry blossom tobacco still lingers in my memories and I hear him calling my in that warm deep way he did, “Bev-er-leeeeee” as he sang “bum-pa-bum bum and Oh My Darlin Clementine. I see us standing at his sink as he shaved his face clean and then splashed, first his own cheeks and then my own, with Old Spice.  A fresh shirt and a comb through his thick wavy hair so like my own dad’s and we were ready for dinner and “looking sharp.”

My Pappaw always saw the best in me and supported the thing that I cared about. He loved me and if I loved something that was all he seemed to need to know. I wish I could have sung for him one more time.

I love you, Pappaw. You were a good man.




Ellis was my wife , Katherine's papaw. He was a very nice man. I enjoyed carving wood pieces for him. We will miss him. 

I loved my dad, he was a great man and father. He always had my back. He will be missed very much.

What can I say about my father. I want to tell you what he meant to me personally. He was dad, daddy, papaw, and to me he was pops. Over the years I was able to break through his facade and saw him as the father I wanted to be in my life. He loved his computer and I was his IT man. Over the numerous hours in his bedroom working with his computer we shared many commen interests. We talked WWII, the air force, westerns, and even the rare occational glimps into his past. He loved watching nascar and gunsmoke, I learned to like them as well. Something we shared in common. I feel honored that he let me in during the last years of his life. To me he was a figure larger than life. I am sorry to see him go but after 89 years, it was his time. I will miss him but he will forever live on in my heart. One day We will come together again. I love you dad and thank you for being my father. God bless you.

My father was my rock! He kept me centered in life. He had a special way of letting you know you were loved despite your shortcomings. He lved my mother with a deep passion and was married to my mother since 12-14-51—66 years! When I last saw him he got cleaned up, in a wheechair and wanted me to push him close to my mother. He proceeded to grab her hand and bent over (and looked like he’d fall out) and gave her a huge kiss! He then was happy to go back to bed. That made my heart smile and cry at the same time! I just loved him so very much! 

One of my fondest memories is sitting at the kitchen table, having great conversations while snapping beans with Dad, and him telling me, " we won't have enough for supper if you keep eating all of them." 
   I was honored when Dad asked me to proof read a couple of his books.
   The boy who wished he could fly, is now soaring with the angels.

Verlin, was my brother in law for 24 yrs.  we never got to visit him at his home, but when his family came back home, we always went there to visit him.
He was a good man, father, husband, brother and son.  I am proud to say, that I knew him and his family.  Loved the time I got to spend with them.
Go rest high on the mountain,,, Verlin, ,,your work on earth is done.... but your memory will linger on, ,,,,
I pray that God will send His Angels  of comfort, to be with his family and friends at this time and in the future...
See ya later, Verlin!

Dad was very successful in everything that he tried so it was from him that I learned my work ethic. He provided our family with some great times at an eclectic range of recreation from watching old westerns movies to donkey baseball, his love for NASCAR and UT Football/Basketball, camping, picnicking, swimming, fishing and the love of the woods. As everyone who knew him will attest, he loved his gardening so we all enjoyed his bountiful crops. He was very much a family man so even though we lived far from our families he made sure that we got to visit as much as possible. Dad was always very happy to share the stories of his youth and all of the family genealogy so those memories gave me the bases to document our family heritage. It was all this commitment to family that was passed down to me and my siblings that allows us to carry on this closeness to all family. My Dad was a great man who we owe a lot of gratitude and most of all I am proud to be his son.

One of my greatest memories was spending Florida afternoon’s on the porch with him while it rained. Another one is to be his little gal elf on Christmas morning passing  out presents and waking them up climbing in bed with mammaw and pappaw even at the age of 30 because I will forever be their little girl. He loved and supported me no matter what and I will always appreciate that. 

Dad had the opportunity to teach us service and duty to country and loved ones. Raised on military bases, traveling and experiencing new places and people was a great education. Dad studied military campaigns and history and was a wealth of knowledge about our countries conflicts. He kept many table top books that we could look thru and discuss the history with him...he knew the pros and cons of the wars and outcomes and could point out not only the heroics but the botched operations and sad atrocities. He stayed true to his country, his wife and his family thru as they say thick and thin. He was an honorable man to whom I owe a great deal of gratitude and am proud to claim him as my Dad. I will miss him greatly.

OBITUARY

Ellis Verlin Lumpkins

June 24, 1929 – July 6, 2018

Berry Lynnhurst Funeral Home & Lynnhurst Cemetery

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