Gerald Wayne Roberts

Gerald Wayne Roberts, 78 years of age, passed away on February 1, 2021 at his home in Keithville, LA, with his family by his side. Funeral services will be held on Thursday, February 4, 2021 at 10 am at Bethany Baptist Church in Marthaville. Burial will follow at McCaskill Cemetery in Marthaville. The family will receive friends on the morning of Thursday the 4th from 9 am until service time. Born on December 7, 1942, Gerald was the youngest of eleven children of the late Rev. and Mrs. O.S. Roberts. He grew up in Natchitoches and graduated from Provencal High School. In 1965, he married the love of his life, Carolyn, and on November 20, 1966, God blessed them with a son, Michael Wayne. He was the center and joy of their life until God called him home on September 7, 1977, at the age of ten years old. Bro. Gerald was blessed with an active ministry spanning many years. He felt the call of God in his early teens. This call became stronger after the loss of his brother, Truitt, who was just five years older than he and to whom he was very close. He surrendered to the ministry at seventeen years old and was licensed by Old Bethel Baptist Church where his father pastored and ordained soon after at age of eighteen. Gerald pastured churches in Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana and preached revivals in Texas, Louisiana, California, Montana, and Nevada. An evangelistic preacher always striving to build up the body of Christ, he loved to be a part of church growth, and his calling was to be a builder of churches. In November 1993, Gerald was elected to serve on the executive board of the Louisiana Baptist Convention. His whole life was surrounded by the churches that he pastored. A special thanks to the Poe family, Dr. Allen Poe and his wife Dianne and their children, Jonah, Abigail, and Anna, as well as Pam Williams and Julia Scaife for helping take care of him at our home. I could not have gotten through it without all of them. Thanks to my sisters, Norma Neuman, Dawn Smith, and Julie Allen, and my recently deceased sister, Dawn Smith, for the visits, phone calls, and prayers. Bro. Gerald was preceded in death by his parents, Ola Sparks Roberts and Reverend Oliver Silas Roberts; brothers, Roy Roberts, Ray Roberts, Thurman Roberts, and Truitt Roberts; sisters, Marie Reimer, Patsy Roberts, Magdalene Polk, Vera Thompson, Doris Bonnette, and Lucille Taylor; and one son, Michael Wayne Roberts. He is survived by his wife of over 55 years, Carolyn. In lieu of flowers, please donate to your local church or a Christian charity. Without the Lord, he could not have made it through these last few difficult years.