Loyce Humphrey

Thank you so very much for clicking on this link and for wanting to know how Loyce is doing. As you know, Loyce stayed in Southern Louisiana after Leo’s passing (2006) until 2010. At that time she moved to Bartlesville, Oklahoma, where her sister, Nan Kennedy Morrison, was living. She looked forward to being closer to family. She quickly settled in, made many new friends, and got involved in the ministries of Bartlesville First Baptist Church. She was always active in women’s ministry, prayer groups, Sunday school, music, anything that had to do with reaching folks for Christ, and also continued to be a liaison for Good News In Action.

In the fall of 2015, Loyce began to have serious health problems. Exams and tests revealed that her aortic valve was failing and in need of replacement. She had that done successfully on the Monday before Thanksgiving however immediately thereafter she suffered two strokes (a shower stroke in the front of the brain and a hemorrhage stroke in the back of the brain). Shortly thereafter she suffered a cardiac arrest and was on life support for 36 hours. A pacemaker was installed in her heart and her health seemed to stabilize. Once she was well enough, Loyce was transferred to a Nursing Home in Tulsa where she received therapy and rehabilitation. The goal was for her to get well enough to go back home. Unfortunately, while in the nursing home, she suffered a severe fall backwards in which she fractured her neck. She was rushed back to the hospital where surgery was performed to install rods and pins extending from C4 to T2. Once again, she healed enough to be discharged from the hospital, but would need to go again to a skilled nursing facility. A wonderful place was found for her in Bartlesville, much closer to home. With the support of friends and family and lots of hard work and effort Loyce improved to a certain point. Her courage in facing her difficulties at that time was admirable, as was her faith in God that never faltered.

In March of 2016, while still a resident of the Bartlesville skilled nursing facility, she began to have respiratory difficulties. A quick chest x-ray revealed fluid around the lungs. The fluid was biopsied and found to contain cancer cells. On April 4, 2016 she was taken for a PET scan to determine the location and type of cancer. The PET scan revealed stage 4-A cancer in her right lung and a small cancer in her left lung. She was given a life expectancy of about 6 months.

On Saturday April 9, 2016 Loyce was able to go home, something she had deeply desired since her aortic valve replacement surgery over 4 months prior. Jill, her daughter, had readied her home for her arrival and would stay with her for the duration. Loyce was set up with Hospice Care from the very beginning; they were so good to provide everything she needed by way of medical equipment and physical care. The joy of coming home was ironically met with rapidly declining health; so radical was the decline, that after three very difficult days and nights, Jill and Hospice made the decision to move Loyce to the Journey Home house in Bartlesville, just 5 blocks from her home. She was desperately in need of specialized care to help her transition from her earthly home to her heavenly home. Loyce passed from this life into the arms of her Savior on Thursday April 14, 2016 at 4:48 AM.

We invite you to read her Obituary written by her sister,

Nan Kennedy Morrison:

Loyce Lee (Kennedy) Humphrey was born July 25, 1936 in Muskogee, Oklahoma and left this life April 14, 2016.  Loyce Lee was the second child of Ernest Verdale Kennedy and Norma Lee (Camp) Kennedy.  She attended Checotah schools graduating with the class of 1954.  Loyce was active in every activity during her school days.  She played French Horn and was the drum major in the band, won honors at state in vocal music, was a synchronized swimmer in college and was an outstanding girls basketball player and was offered a contract with the Professional Woman’s Basketball team “The Red Heads”.

Loyce was a former member of the Daughters of the American Revolution her Mother having traced her lineage back to Pre-Revolutionary days.  She also qualified for membership in the First Families of the Twin Territories of Oklahoma.  Her Father was born in Indian Territory before Oklahoma became a state and her grandparents on her Mother’s side were residents of Indian Territory as well.

After attending Oklahoma Baptist University, ex ’55, she and Leo Humphrey were united in marriage on September 7, 1955 at the First Baptist Church in Checotah, OK.  Leo was in the Air Force and they lived in numerous cities following his profession. Answering the Lord’s call to preach, Leo and Loyce moved their family to New Orleans where he attended New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and became a Minister of the gospel.  For 37 years Leo was an international evangelist preaching revivals and directing the ministry Good News in Action.  Loyce worked beside Leo and they regularly took groups from the US on outreach missions to El Salvador and other countries in Central America.  She spoke to Women’s groups in retreats and missionary meetings leading people to faith in Jesus Christ and telling about the work in El Salvador.

Loyce was raised in a dedicated Christian home whose Mother, was a wonderful bible scholar and taught Women’s Sunday School over 20 years.  Loyce Lee went to church twice on Sunday and Wednesday night, and learned to tithe in Sunbeams.  When she was nine years old Loyce attended a Christian summer camp where services were held twice a day in a brush arbor.  At that time she came forward, with others from her church, and made a profession of faith and was baptized in her home church following a public profession there.  After she and Leo were married they lived in California and Leo worked with Arthur Blessit carrying a cross.  Under the preaching of Arthur and guidance from Leo, Loyce felt she had never been saved and completely gave herself to her Lord.  She was baptized into the kingdom as a young married adult.

Loyce and Leo were the parents of two children, Jill Humphrey Pletcher and Kelly Verdale Humphrey.  Kelly was a cancer victim and went to Heaven in 1983. She is survived by her daughter Jill Pletcher of Bartlesville, Oklahoma and her grandchildren Benjamin Kelly and Margaret Elizabeth (Maggie) Pletcher as well as one sister, Nan Kennedy Morrison of Bartlesville and her husband Frank and a nephew Alan James Morrison. Her extended family of Steve and Pam Kern of El Salvador also survive her.

Her funeral services were held on Tuesday April 19, 2016 at 2 PM at the Garrett Family Funeral Home in Checotah, OK. Burial, immediately following, was at the Greenlawn Cemetery in Checotah beside her husband and son.  A memorial was held in the East Auditorium of First Baptist Church Bartlesville on April 22, 2016.  

Memorials may be made to the ministry that Leo started and is actively winning people to Jesus in Central America: Good News in Action, P.O. Box 1660, Albany, LA 70711