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OBU Bookstore

Every Good Gift by Cecil Sutley

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Local Author Offers Wisdom Gleaned from Nearly 100 Years Special to the Dispatch A longtime Arkadelphian, Cecil C. Sutley, has published a new book offering wisdom from his nearly 100 years on the planet — all in bite-size pieces. “Every Good Gift: Cecil’s Scribblings and Other Thoughts” is available through the campus bookstore at Ouachita Baptist University, where Sutley taught religion courses for 33 years, as well as Henderson State University’s bookstore. Proceeds from book sales go to the Ellajane and Cecil Sutley Scholarship Fund at OBU. Most chapters in the 154-page book run 1-2 pages, dealing with family, relationships, faith and belief, doctrine and more. A few memories date to his childhood during the Great Depression. The book’s title references James 1:17, which begins, “Every good and perfect gift is from above ...” Many chapters originated as “Cecil’s Scribblings” email messages that he shared with more than 200 friends and family over a 20-year period. Although Sutley spent most of his career as a religion professor, this book focuses less on his professional life and more on practical observations related to the daily details of living — spirituality, taxes, wealth, gossip, child discipline, prayer, and humility, to name a few, with most flavored by his trademark wit. Born Sept. 7, 1920, in DeFuniak Springs, Fla., Sutley was the youngest of nine children raised in several Florida panhandle towns. Before arriving with his family in Arkadelphia in 1954, he pastored Baptist churches in Mississippi, Florida, and Oklahoma while attending Mississippi College and Fort Worth’s Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. During his OBU years, he also served as interim pastor for several Arkansas churches. He also served in the Army during World War II. Sutley nurtured a lifelong interest in travel that led him to recruit groups for his tours to 80-plus countries. On many trips, he was able to take his wife, Ellajane, or one of their five children. Ellajane Sutley died on Nov. 25, 2016, less than three months before they were to celebrate their 75th wedding anniversary. After Cecil retired from OBU, he and Ellajane served as volunteer Southern Baptist missionaries in Liberia for 18 months and Niger for six months. After returning to Arkadelphia, they spent 17 years as Meals on Wheels volunteers, and Sutley served as a volunteer hospice chaplain for Baptist Health for 20 years. Before the current COVID-19 pandemic, Sutley was visited frequently at his Arkadelphia home by his children, 10 grandchildren, 15 great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren. Three of his children live in Arkadelphia: Marie Dallas, Jeanne Hanson and founding Dispatch editor Bill Sutley. The family will host a drop-in reception celebrating his 100th birthday from 2-3 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 6 at First Baptist Church’s fellowship hall. The public is invited. Face masks are mandatory, and social distancing is also requested. Copies of Every Good Gift will be available at the reception. Books may also be ordered by sending an email to bill.sutley@gmail.com. # # #

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