James Darrell Tapley

James Darrell Tapley was born February 12, 1928 in Broken Bow, Oklahoma, the only child of James Fred and Fay Pendergrass Tapley.

He grew up on family farms in Oklahoma and South Texas, and graduated from high school in Pearsall, Texas. After a year in a failed endeavor to be a farmer, Darrell enrolled in Howard Payne College to study for a career in Christian ministry.

At Howard Payne, he met the woman who would become his lifelong partner in family and ministry, Fredalene Sparks. Church work began immediately for the pair, when Darrell was called to pastor a small church in Eldorado, Texas while still in college.

He attended Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, and pastored a small Spanish-language mission in west Dallas during his seminary studies. Darrell and Fredalene also served as house parents at Buckner Orphan’s Home in Dallas while he pursued his ministerial studies.

After seminary, his ministry took him to pastorates and mission fields in Houston, Seminole, and San Antonio, Texas; and Alamogordo, Pecos, Las Cruces, Chama, Animas, and Mountainair, New Mexico. Upon retirement, Darrell and Fredalene moved to Valera near Fredalene’s childhood home, and he pastored Leaday Baptist Church for several years.

Darrell Tapley’s call to ministry is as unique a story as his career itself. He felt God’s call while in high school, but he flatly refused, telling God he was going to be a farmer. When he graduated from high school, Darrell’s dad set aside 40 acres for Darrell to plant crops of corn, watermelon, and peanuts. He often told the story of that year of struggling with God about his life’s work, and how God won: at the end of the growing season, 40 acres produced not one ear of corn, not one watermelon, and not one peanut. He truly surrendered to ministry and immediately began his formal training.

Although he had a grasp of the Spanish language growing up in South Texas, Darrell enhanced his Spanish skills by studying the bible in Spanish, and developed the skill that would help him throughout his ministry.

Some of the more unique work Darrell embraced was when he served as pastor of Glorieta Baptist Church. Originally established to serve the full-time staff of Glorieta Baptist Assembly run by the Baptist Sunday School Board, the church was also the doorway to serve the Spanish-speaking communities near Glorieta and Pecos, New Mexico. Always looking for new ways to reach out and spread the gospel of Jesus Christ, Darrell used the resources of Glorieta Baptist Church and carried a movie projector, screen, and electric generator across the mountain from Pecos to show gospel-based, short movies dubbed in Spanish to a small community that had not been served by a church, or an electric power company, in years. The church also acquired a portable pump organ, and the entire Tapley family would travel to the edge of the Pecos Wilderness to hold worship services for campers near the headwaters of the Pecos River.

No matter where he served, Darrell always believed in the power of preaching, and of sharing the gospel by any means necessary. His sermons were Bible lessons and his life was always an opening to share the gospel.

Darrell was also a craftsman, and spent considerable time honing his skills as a jewelry maker. He worked originally with polished stone, but in New Mexico discovered the joy of working with turquoise and silver, and occasionally he even panned for gold in the dried-up creek beds of New Mexico. His hands were never idle, always creating and building, be it a new necklace, or a new set of earrings, a tie tack, or a bolo tie.

Darrell Tapley was preceded in death by his wife Fredalene Tapley, and is survived by three children: Nancy Whitworth, of Fort Worth, Texas; Jim Tapley and his wife Gloria of Dallas, Texas; Gary Tapley and his wife Nita of Valera; six grandchildren: Malinda Whitworth McKinnon and her husband Jacob; John Tapley and his fiancé Joy Druley; Ruth Lynn Tapley; Tracy Whitworth Chaney; Dawn Whitworth Snyder and her husband David, and Scott Whitworth; and six great-grandchildren.

Funeral service will be 10:00 a.m. Monday, April 28, 2014 at Stevens Funeral Home Chapel with Rev. Ralph Howell officiating. Burial will follow in the Brown Ranch Cemetery, under the direction of Stevens Funeral Home. Family visitation will be from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Sunday at Stevens Funeral Home, 400 West Pecan Street, Coleman.

Memorials may be made to Valera Baptist Church or Howard-Payne University.

Please sign his online guestbook at www.livingmemorials.com.