J. Frank Norris
| John Franklyn Norris | |
|---|---|
J. Frank Norris (left) and John Roach Straton
|
|
| Born |
September 18, 1877 Dadeville, Tallapoosa County, Alabama, USA |
| Died | August 20, 1952 (aged 74) Jacksonville, Florida |
| Cause of death | Heart attack |
| Residence | Fort Worth, Texas |
| Alma mater |
Baylor University Southern Baptist Theological Seminary |
| Occupation |
Pastor, First Baptist Church of Fort Worth (1909-1952) |
| Years active | 1897-1952 |
| Spouse(s) | Lillian Gaddy (m.1902) |
| Children |
Lillian (b. 1903 d. 1993) Jim (b. 1906) J. Frank jnr (b. 1910) George L. (b. 1916) |
| Parent(s) | James Warner Norris Mary Davis Norris |
Pastor, First Baptist Church of Fort Worth (1909-1952)
Pastor, Temple Baptist Church in Detroit, Michigan (1935-1951)
Editor Baptist Standard (prior to 1909)
Publisher, The Searchlight
Lillian (b. 1903 d. 1993) Jim (b. 1906) J. Frank jnr (b. 1910)
John Franklyn (J. Frank) Norris (September 18, 1877 – August 20, 1952) was a Baptist preacher and controversial Christian fundamentalist.
J. Frank Norris was born in Dadeville in Tallapoosa County in eastern Alabama, but the family shortly moved to Arkansas and then back to Columbiana in Shelby County in central Alabama. In the late 1880s, the Norrises purchased land near Hubbard in Hill County, Texas, about thirty miles north of Waco, where they farmed. James Warner Norris was an alcoholic, and Frank Norris claimed that his father once beat him severely after he had emptied his liquor bottles. In 1891, both were shot by an acquaintance of Warner Norris, and Frank said he did not fully recuperate for three years.
Norris was converted at a Baptist revival meeting in the early 1890s, and in 1897, he became pastor of Mount Antioch Baptist Church in Mount Calm in Hill County, Texas. The following year he enrolled in Baptist-affiliated Baylor University in Waco, which he attended from 1898 to 1903. He then earned a Master of Theology degree from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. In 1905, Norris returned to Texas as the pastor of the McKinney Avenue Baptist Church in Dallas. He resigned that post in 1907 to become editor of the Baptist Standard. Norris is credited with ending the Texas Baptist newspaper war, with moving Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary from Waco to Fort Worth, and with persuading the state legislature to abolish racetrack gambling.
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