Bishop Richard McLaurine Woodruff

Bishop Richard McLaurine Woodruff, 67, of Miller, died Feb. 10, 2022, after a brief illness. He was born June 6, 1954, in Montgomery, Ala.,
Woodruff attended Greenville High School in Greenville, Miss., and later attended classes at Lee University in Tennessee. He met and married his wife Mary Frances “Molly” Reid in Jackson, Miss., in 1976.
Among his accomplishments were earning a black belt in Shotokan Karate, working bi-vocationally as an electrician, and sharing the gospel in music by singing tenor in the Lee Gann Quartet, and with the vocal group The Southernaires.  
For more than 40 years, he was a Church of God evangelist, singing and preaching the saving power of Jesus. Throughout the course of his ministry, he led revivals and traveled in a noteworthy 44 states and 13 countries.
Woodruff served as a youth pastor and the couple pastored two churches: Trinity International Church of God in Laurel, Md., and Cornerstone Church of God, in New Bethlehem, Penn. They ministered often in Mexico and Hawaii, but Woodruff felt a special calling to the Holy Land, where he and his wife traveled on 12 occasions to bring to life the scriptures that transformed many of those who travelled with them.   
Woodruff was preceded in death by his father Thomas B Woodruff, Jr., and his mother Mary White Woodruff Smith. He is survived by his wife Mary Frances “Molly” Reid, one brother Charles Woodruff (Wanda), five sisters Marilyn Buckley (Rick), Elaine Barrentine (Norman Ephrim), Linda Huey (Mickey), Kathy Barrentine (Norman Earl), and Elizabeth Barber (John), and several nieces and nephews.
A graveside service was at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 22, at Sharon Cemetery in Magee, Miss., and followed with a celebration of life dinner at Petal Spiritual Life Center in Petal, Miss. Local services by Birch Funeral Home, Ash Grove.