Obituary of Reverend F. Parmer

Lifelong resident Ben F. Parmer died on January 28, 2006 in Burlington, Colorado. He was born on August 29, 1916, on his parent’s homestead 20 miles northeast of Burlington in the Happy Hollow School District where he attended country school. He continued his education at his own pace by extensive reading. Later, he was president of the Happy Hollow School Board and held 2 series of gospel meetings in the Happy Hollow School. He was born again, or saved, on February 29, 1928, at the age of 11 in the same room of the house in which he was born. As Ben grew up, he watched how his father wiggled his ears. He learned to wiggle his ears while he was a boy. Over the years, most of you have seen those ears wiggle. As a boy, Ben hunted, trapped, raised birds and animals and enjoyed riding horses. His largest catch was 16 skunks which were smoked out of a culvert at one time. To make money he would sell pelts in town and pull weeds out of gardens and yards for anybody who would hire him. When he was about 13 years old, he and his younger brother, Don, built an adobe house in which they slept. In his middle teens he was an excellent baseball player, and he used to play on a community baseball team. When the games began to be held on Sundays, he quit the team because he didn’t want to miss church. During the fall of the year in which he turned 17, he shucked 4,000 bushels of corn by hand. He picked as much as 100 bushels a day. He was one of the best corn huskers in the area. Ben lived through the Depression and in an area that was part of the infamous Dust Bowl. During some of the worst dust storms, so much dust filtered into the house that the dust had to be swept into a scoop shovel and emptied into a pail to be carried out. In the fall of 1936, Ben moved about 2 ½ miles from the homestead, and he and Wayne Windell batched. At the Kanorado Gospel Hall north of Kanorado, KS, the group of believers with whom he fellowshipped, he met a lovely school teacher, Mildred Helen Johnson, who had come from Ault, Colorado to teach in northeastern Colorado. Ben and Mildred were married on April 23, 1937. A blizzard on the day of their wedding nearly delayed the ceremony. They celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary a few months before Mildred went home to be with the Lord. Ben and Mildred continued to fellowship with the believers at the Kanorado Gospel Hall. Soon after his marriage, Ben began teaching a boys’ Sunday school class there. When Ben began farming, he used horses and was one of the first ones in the county to buy a tractor. He raised primarily wheat, but also grew corn, oats, barley and milo. Although he didn’t know anything about growing alfalfa, he decided to try it and was quite successful. Although he tried to get the crops harvested as soon as possible, he didn’t harvest on Sunday, or allow his hired men to harvest on Sunday. Ben also raised white faced Hereford cattle and took them to market at the Stockyards in Kansas City, Chicago, and Omaha. He was well known for the excellence of his cattle. He also raised hogs and sometime sheep. Over the years, the Lord blessed Ben and Mildred with 3 children, Tony Helen Parmer, Judy Ellen Standley and Paul B Parmer. The family lived on the farm until the last day of November 1948, when they moved into the home in Burlington, where Ben resided until his death. Burlington is the site of the Ben F. Parmer Municipal Park. That was the name chosen by the City of Burlington for the 7 acres that Ben donated to the city for a park. Ben was presented with the Golden Wheat Award in recognition of his philanthropic involvement with the Kit Carson County Memorial Hospital. Before I-70 was completed, there were many accidents. Ben spent a great deal of time comforting patients and their families. The hospital administrator noticed the gratefulness of the patients and decided to allow the Ministerial Alliance, of which Ben was a member, to provide chaplaincy services to the hospital. Ben was in the ministry for nearly 60 years. He spent about 30 years ministering in Burlington and over 30 years ministering in the Limon area. In June 1949, Ben left Burlington and flew to Edmonton, Canada, where he joined two older brothers in the Lord. They needed a younger man to drive for them, so Ben drove their station wagon over the Alcan Highway. When they arrived just inside the border of Alaska, they were stopped by a road block. The frost was going out of the road, and the road was so bad, it was closed until it could be fixed. One of the men, Willie Rae, caught a plane on into Fairbanks, Alaska. Don Charles and Ben stayed in the station wagon for 6 days and nights. When the road was opened on Sunday morning, they left early enough to arrive in time for church. Ernie and Helen Crabb were just starting a camp that Sun. evening. They asked Don Charles and Ben to stay at the camp and do the Bible teaching. He was there for a week. There were over 20 campers at the camp, and several of them professed to be saved. The mosquitoes were so bad that Ben wore a wet towel around his neck to ward them off. If you used your bedding to cover your head at night, the mosquiTOES would chew on your toes. That was Ben’s first camp experience, and he was involved in camps ever since. After the camp was over, Ben helped pitch a tent in which to hold gospel meetings. He shared in the speaking the first night of the meetings. It was a rainy night, but the attendance was good in spite of the weather. The following day he left for home. On July 3, 1949, Ben began his first series of gospel meetings in the school house at Hale, CO, which is east of Bonny reservoir. In the early 1950’s, he began dedicating much of his time spreading the gospel. He traveled extensively, conducting evangelistic crusades from 1 to 3 weeks at a time in many states. A tent was used for several of these outreaches. In August 1951, Ben held a series of gospel meetings in Henryetta, OK. He conducted some evangelistic meetings in Del City, OK in September of 1952. For many years, he averaged 10-15 weeks of meetings per year. One year Ben spoke at over 50 churches in 21 states. He has spoken in at least one Bible Chapel in 48 of the 50 states. South Dakota has no Bible Chapel, but some people from a Bible Chapel arranged for him to speak in that state. Vermont is the only state in which he never ministered the word. He also taught the word of God in Canada. Ben was honored for his many years of service at Bible camps in Colorado, Kansas, Minnesota, Iowa, Oklahoma, etc. For over 20 years Ben was on the Board of the Christian Home for Children in Colorado Springs. Most of those years he was either president or treasurer. At times the Christian Home for Children cared for 50 needy children. He also helped found the Colorado Rockies Bible Camp and Conference and served as chairman of the board. In 1964, Ben began his work in Limon, CO, with children’s meetings in the home of Lillian Parmer, his sister-in-law. Those progressed to cottage meetings in different homes. In July 1965, he pitched his tent in Limon, and on July 18, he began 3 weeks of gospel meetings. Several professed to be saved. He held another series of evangelistic meetings at the school’s old gym in Limon in November 1965. The outcome of this outreach was the building of the Limon Bible Chapel. The first Sunday services were held in the new building on February 12, 1967. In July 1968, Ben pitched his tent in Hugo, about 15 miles southeast of Limon, and conducted gospel meetings there. Sunday, April 11, 1965, was the inaugural message of Ben’s Family Bible Hour radio program. It was aired over KLOE in Goodland, KS. His radio program is still heard every Sunday over several stations, including some large 50,000 watt stations. Ben wrote several pamphlets and articles for Christian Magazines. Ben turned over most of his pastoral duties at the Limon Bible Chapel to his son, Paul. After Paul’s sudden death in 2004, he resumed as many responsibilities as he was able. He preached his last sermon the Sunday before he died. Ben was preceded in death by his parents, Frank and Lona Fay Parmer, his wife Mildred; his son, Paul; two brothers, Bob and Don; and one sister, Maxine Teel. Left to mourn his passing are his daughters, Tony Helen Parmer and Judy Ellen Standley of Burlington; grandchildren, Phillipa Standley of Lawrence, KS, Phillip N. Standley of Hartford, Connecticut, Judith Standley of San Francisco, CA, and Rachel Standley Lofland and her husband Mark, of Wichita, KS; great grandsons, Brendan and Jerrod Lofland, several nephews and nieces and a host of friends. Funeral services for Mr. Parmer were held on Saturday, February 4, 2006 at 11:00 AM at the First Christian Church in Burlington with Pastors Keith Trevolt and Robert Larson officiating. Burial followed in the Fairview Cemetery in Burlington. Visitation was held on Friday, February 03, 2006 from 6:00 to 8:00 PM at the Love Funeral Home in Burlington. Memorials may be made in Ben’s name and may be left at the Funeral Home in Burlington.