Louis Dee Whitworth

Louis Dee Whitworth was born on August 9, 1940 in Memphis, Tennessee to Lorenzo Dow Whitworth and Kathleen Albright Whitworth. He grew up in Bastrop, Louisiana and graduated from Bastrop High School in 1958. He went on to get his bachelor’s degree in Sociology and English from Northeast Louisiana State College in Monroe, Louisiana in 1963. He got his masters in English Literature in 1966, while teaching freshman grammar and composition and sophomore English literature at Northwestern Louisiana State University. Having been deferred during the Cuban Missile Crisis, he decided now was the time to honor his military service commitment. In September of 1966 he attended naval officer candidate school in Newport Rhode Island. He was then assigned to anti-submarine warfare school in San Diego and drone helicopter school on San Clemente Island. Assigned to a destroyer, the USS DeHaven DD 727 that was homeported in Yokosuka, Japan, he met his ship in Hong Kong in Spring of 1967. While on active duty, in spring of 1968 he attended a Billy Graham crusade where he accepted Christ. Thus began his path and spiritual formation, wanting his life to be a witness and testimony for the love of Jesus Christ. In 1969 after being discharged from active duty, he moved to Dallas and joined Campus Crusade for Christ and was then placed on staff in Arizona for two years. He returned to Dallas to lead a Christian group called Singles Life. In this season he met him his lifelong love Barbara Taylor of Akron Ohio who had come to Dallas for Campus Crusade for Christ’s Explo ‘72. They married in 1974 and he joined Probe Ministries as head of the editorial department two weeks after their wedding. He would continue to be with Probe Ministries for 25 years. In this time, he started at Dallas Theological Seminary in the fall of 1976 and graduated with his THM in 1981. He became a father to his three children, Stephanie, Stuart and Stacy. In July of 1999 he performed his first wedding for Love Notes, a wedding clergy service. He continued to officiate weddings until February of 2020. By the last best estimate he had officiated over 600 weddings. He was married to his bride Barbara for 42 years until her passing in 2016. He passed away surrounded with his three children by his side. He is preceded in death by his parents Lorenzo Dow Whitworth and Kathleen Albright Whitworth, his brother Charles Whitworth and his wife Barbara Taylor Whitworth. He is survived by his brothers David Whitworth of Bastrop Louisiana, Bill Whitworth of Birmingham Alabama, and Mike Whitworth of West Monroe Louisiana, his son Stuart Whitworth, his two daughters Stacy Whitworth and Stephanie Whitworth Harrington, his son-in-law Darren Harrington, and his grandson Whit Harrington.

Funeral at University Park United Methodist Church - Friday November 19 at 12:45pm