Ira B Bright

Rev. Bright was retired as a Baptist pastor. He graduated from Aberdeen High School in 1944 and went into the Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP) at the University of Alabama and Auburn University. He began Army active duty in 1945. He was stationed at several bases in the United States and in Germany. He was discharged in 1947 as a First Lieutenant.

Following military service, he returned to college and surrendered to the ministry in 1949. He graduated from Mississippi College in 1951 and Southwestern Baptist Seminary in 1955. He pastored Baptist churches from 1955 until 1981 in Arbor Grove, Houston, MS; Southside, Aberdeen MS, Parkway, Houston, MS and First Baptist, Shannon, MS.

On February 25, 1967, he married Lawanda Faye Couch of Lufkin, TX and they moved to Lufkin in 1981. He served as pastor and interim pastor of several churches in the Lufkin area and worked for Hospice In The Pines as a chaplain. He retired in 1997

He is survived by his wife, Lawanda (Couch) Bright of Lufkin; sister and brother-in-law, Elizabeth and Cohen Robertson of Clinton, MS; sister-in-law and brother-in-law, Bartha and Edwin Aldredge of Lufkin, TX; nieces and husbands, Beth and Fred Wilson of Jackson, MS and Alesa and Kenny Baker of Spring, TX; nephews and spouses, Cohen Robertson, Jr. of Jackson, MS and Philip and Julie Aldredge of Tyler; several great and great-great nieces and nephews and many friends.

He is preceded in death by his parents.

Serving as pallbearers are Roger Parker, Bobby Reynolds, Ernest King, Ray Scott, Carl Lively and Greg Dotson.

Honorary pallbearers will be the men of the Adult I Sunday School department of Lufkin's First Baptist Church and Delbert Parrott.

Expressions of sympathy through donations may be made to the D. C. Miller Scholarship Fund or Homebound Ministry of Lufkin's First Baptist Church, 106 E. Bremond, Lufkin, TX 75901 or the American Cancer Society, 212 Gene Samford Drive, Lufkin, TX 75904.

Services for Rev. Bright will be held at 10:00 a.m. Tuesday, November 2, 2010, in the Gipson Funeral Home Chapel with Dr. Andrew G. Pittman and Rev. Kenneth King officiating. Interment will follow in the Garden of Memories Memorial Park.

Friends are invited to visit with the family from 5:00 pm to 7:00 p.m. Monday evening at Gipson Funeral Home.

Gipson Funeral Home, directors