Pastor Carl Shelton Greer Sr. was eulogized by loved ones and fellow ministers who knew him best on Sunday (Aug. 8) at The Dwelling Place Christian Church. He was 70.
“It was a wonderful celebration of life,” said Pastor Carl Shelton Greer Jr., pastor of Holy Ground Church. “He was a pastor in Mississippi. For 40 years, he served God’s people as a pastor. I preached part one of the eulogy, and his brother, the Rev. James Glover, preached part two.”
Greer Sr. was born in Hernando, Mississippi and moved to Memphis in his teens. He graduated from Douglass High School in 1968 and moved to Rochester, New York. While living there, he was drafted into the U.S. Army. He received the Purple Heart and an honorable discharge.
Greer Jr. said his grandmother was Madame C. J. Watson. Also in the family is Pastor Michael Glover, also of Memphis.
Ministry has been the family business for many in Greer’s family.
“I started preaching at the age of 15,” said Greer Jr. “Ministry has been in our family for generations. My grandmother started seven churches. Even from very young, I always knew that I would be a preacher.”
Greer Sr. served as president and vice-president of the Memphis Baptist Ministerial Association. He also was an instructor at the Herbert W. Brewster School of Religion in Memphis.
A member of the Masonic St. Paul Lodge, where he served for a time as Worshipful Master, Greer Sr. sang with his brothers and sisters after his mother finished preaching, Greer Jr. recalls of his father’s younger days.
Greer Sr. was an organ transplant advocate for Methodist University Hospital.
He leaves his wife of 51 years, Everlean Spearman Greer; two sons, three brothers, two sisters, six grandchildren, five great-grandchildren, family friends and many former members of his congregations.
