Dr. Benjamin Gatewood McClure

Dateline: McKenzie, TN

Funeral services for Dr. Benjamin Gatewood McClure is 1:30 p.m., Saturday, October 9, 2021 at the First Cumberland Presbyterian Church. The family will receive friends on Saturday at the church 11:30 a.m. until service time. Interment is at Mt. Olivet Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers the family has asked that any memorials be made to the First Cumberland Presbyterian Church, McKenzie.

Dr. McClure, 81 years old, died at Baptist Memorial Hospital on September 25, 2021 due to complications from Covid -19.

He was born on June 28, 1940 in Athens, Ga to Walter Morris and Mary Gatewood Moseley McClure. He grew up in Madison, GA and graduated from Morgan County High School in 1958 and went on to attend Middle Tennessee State College in Murfreesboro, TN where he graduated in 1962 with a Bachelor of Science in Music Education. He continued his education at the University of Georgia in Athens, GA where he graduated in 1968 with a Master of Education in Music Education and led music education and band at Jefferson High School, Jefferson, GA. His love of learning continued when he went on to earn a Doctor of Education in Program and Staff Development at George Peabody College of Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN in 1980 while living in Smyrna, TN.

In 1983 he took a job as the chair of the Lincoln Memoria University Education Department in Cumberland Gap, TN. He met Linda Rains and they were married in 1989. The Doctors’ McClure moved to McKenzie in 1989 where he was chair of the Bethel College Education Department until his retirement in 2008.

He is survived by his wife, Linda Rains McClure, his children David (Amy) McClure and Harriette (Rocky Ross) Saide; his niece Christie (Chris) Maloney, four grandchildren, his sister Marsha (Rip) Roper and several nieces and nephews.

He is preceded in death by his parents, brother Morris (Shirley) McClure and his first wife Betty Hughey McClure.