Leslie Ernestine Wyatt -- Preacher and Teacher

 

Leslie E. Wyatt

Leslie Ernestine Wyatt was born on December 1, 1926 in Trigg County, Kentucky.  He was the fourth of seven children born to Sherman Franklin Wyatt and Bessie Burton Sholar. Bessie was a great granddaughter of Jemima Bridges Sholar. Leslie’s siblings were Wilford Eugene, born in 1921; Opha Pauline, born in 1923; Evie Lurline, born in 1924, Franklin Austine, born in 1929; Maddax Garnettene, born in 1933 and Dorlis Odean, born in 1937.

Leslie grew up on a farm in the Delmont community of Trigg County and attended the local county schools. Wyatt had an inexhaustible desire to learn, and he was promoted early, skipping the third grade and studying and earning credit for his junior and senior years of high school in one year, in 1944.  Following his graduation Leslie traveled to Chattanooga where he began a career as a preacher.  He decided to attend Freed Hardeman College in Henderson, Tennessee as he wanted to be more skilled and effective in his preaching

It was at Freed Hardeman that Leslie met IvyNell Lawson from Yazoo City, Mississippi. Upon his graduation, Leslie and IvyNell were married in her parents’ home in Mississippi on September 8, 1946. They subsequently became the parents of two daughters, Linda in 1952 and Lenelle in 1957.

Determined to make a better life for his future family, Leslie continued his education at Union University in Jackson, TN and then went on to earn a BS degree at Peabody College in Nashville.  Upon graduation from Peabody, he went on to teach at Cornersville High School in Cornersville, TN, and at the same time began preaching at the Cornersville Church of Christ.

In 1953, the family moved to Mathiston, Mississippi where Leslie worked full-time with the church at Mathiston, had a radio program on Sunday mornings and traveled to two smaller towns to preach in the afternoons. Although he loved his career in the ministry, Leslie did not lose sight of wanting to make a larger impact on young people, teaching them to prepare for their futures. In 1956, he returned to Nashville where he taught business education at David Lipscomb High School. He remained a teacher at the high school until his retirement in 1992

While serving as a full time teacher, he still wanted to continue preaching and would preach at many congregations in Nashville and surrounding counties filling in for preachers who were away. In 1958, he became the preacher for a congregation in Nolensville, TN.  During this time at Nolensville while also teaching at David Lipscomb, he pursued and received his Masters of Education degree in 1962. In 1986, he left the Nolensville congregation and became the associate minister of the Shelby Ave. Church of Christ in Nashville where he served until his retirement.

IvyNell died in 2020, at which time the couple had been married for 74 years.  Leslie died two years later on January 18, 2022 in Nashville. Leslie and IvyNell are buried in the Woodlawn Memorial Park in Nashville.

LINEAGE:  (Leslie Ernestine Wyatt was the son of Sherman Franklin and Bessie Burton Sholar Wyatt, grandson of Ishmal Worth and Sarah Ann Newton Sholar and great-grandson of Thomas J. and Martha Jane Rogers Sholar.  Thomas J. was the seventh child of Allen and Jemima Bridges Sholar.  Jemima was the first child of Drury and Charity Cohoon Bridges.)