Joe Bob Boyd

Joe Bob Boyd passed away at his home in Whitney on Sunday, June 19, 2022, at the age of 78. Funeral services will be held at 11:00 a.m. Saturday, June 25, 2022, at Marshall & Marshall Funeral Directors Chapel in Hillsboro with Pastor David Gant and Rev. Roy Frink officiating. Burial will follow at Peoria Cemetery.  Visitation will be held from 6:00-8:00 p.m. Friday, June 24, at the funeral home.

Joe Bob was born to Steve ‘Henry’ and Lilly Elizabeth (Roberts) Boyd, December 19, 1943, in Whitney, Texas.  As a young boy, he loved going out in the woods with his friends, fishing for crawdads, hunting squirrels, eating frog legs, and swimming in tanks. He loved camping out and would often stay “gone too long” as his mother would say. Joe Bob loved dirt.  He loved the land, and being a farmer and rancher was as thick in his blood as the sand in his boots - peanuts, watermelons, cantaloupe, black-eyed peas, and hogs, pigs, cattle, chickens, a dog named “Doodle-um” and a horse named “Paint.”

His mother’s prayer was that Joe Bob would one day become a preacher. At the age of nine, he accepted the Lord as his personal Savior, but it didn’t stop there. Joe Bob began to live for the Lord in a way that put most of us to shame. He taught Sunday School, Vacation Bible School, led the song service, and even sat in some of the “longest revival meetings in Texas.”  He was later ordained a pastor and was told by the scholars at Dallas Theological Seminary that he was the most knowledgeable self-taught individual they had ever encountered.  On a corner of his father’s land – he had a vision to build a church. It was there that he led Bethel Bible Church for 33 years, supporting missionaries around the world, and assisting anyone in the community that needed him.

Joe Bob married Sue Worlow on January 10, 1970, and together they were a witness to their community and beyond for 50 years.  Joe Bob was the farmer, rancher, and preacher while Sue was his helpmate in all those things and more.  You rarely saw one without the other. Joe Bob was the funny one in an International Tractor cap and denim work shirt, while Sue was the quiet one wearing a silk blouse and heels.

Preceding him in death were his parents; his wife, Sue Boyd; two sisters, Ruby Nell Boyd, and Bessie Marie Curry, and one brother, Steve Boyd, Jr.

Survivors include his two daughters, Thelizabeth Boyd Acker, Hannah Jo Boyd Hehmann and husband, Ronald; and three grandchildren, Reagen Thomas, Jonah Locke, and Henry Hehmann, along with numerous nieces, nephews, and cousins.

“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”  Romans 8:28