Rev. Ernest Eugene, Jolley Jr.


JOLLEY, REV. ERNEST EUGENE, JR. (1930-1999) was born March 30, 1930 to Ernest E. Jolley, Sr. 
and Ruth Godair Jolley in St. Louis, Missouri. He spent his growing up years in St. Louis, 
Missouri. He was the eldest of seven children with four brothers, Danny, Ronald, and Gerald 
all deceased, and Kenneth Jolley resident of Lake Tahoe, California. He preceeds two 
sisters, Jean Jolley Hillis of Memphis, Tennessee and Ruth Jolley Anderson. 

Reverend Jolley felt a call to ministry in Jonesboro, Arkansas as a teenager, enrolled in 
Pentecostal Bible Institute at Tupelo, Mississippi, after which he preached throughout the 
United States and some Canadian Provinces for ten years as an evangelist with the United 
Pentecostal Church, International and Canadian Provinces for ten years as an evangelist with 
the United Pentecostal Church, International and was ordained in 1951. He married his wife, 
I. Carol Kellick, in 1957. Together they evangelized, then pastored churches in Tennessee, 
Illinois and Alabama, his last pastorate being First United Pentecostal Church in Bessemer, 
Alabama from 1969 until his retirement in 1992. 

Throughout his years of active ministry he held many official positions in the districts 
where he ministered as a presbyter, in youth and home missionary departments and most 
notibly his work with the Sunday School Curriculum Committee of the United Pentecostal 
Church, Intl. from 1973 to the present and shared his knowledge of books on theology and 
other Christian themes. He was especially influential in the reprinting of old, out of print 
books written by classic late 18th, 19th and early 20th Century theologians. 

Through his efforts and influence, Rever end Jolley's libraries can be found in Bible 
colleges in the United States, foreign countries, and with personal work with students at 
Indiana Bible College, Indianapolis, Indiana and the Gateway College of Evangelism. St. 
Louis, Missouri, his most recent trip being with students from Indiana to visit a bookhouse 
in Grand Rapids, Michigan in April of this year. 

Reverend Jolley was honored in 1995 with a Doctor of Divinity Degree from Florida Bible 
College and Theological Seminary. He celebrated fifty years of ministry in 1998. 

He departed this life Thursday, May 27, 1999. He is survived by his wife; his son, Chaplain 
Eric E. Jolley; daughter-in-law, Diana; two grandchildren, Brandon and Sarah of 
Edwardsville, Illinois; his two sisters; and brother. 

Funeral services Tuesday, June 1, 1999 from Ridout's Southern Heritage Chapel. The family 
will receive friends on Monday, May 31, 1999 from 5:00-7:00 P.M. at Southern Heritage and a 
funeral service will also be held Wednesday, June 2, 1999 at 3:00 P.M. at the Calvary United 
Pentecostal Church in Mt. Vernon, Illinois with burial in Mt. Vernon Memorial Gardens. The 
family will receive friends one hour prior to service. 

Memorials may be made to the Ernest E. Jolley Memorial Ministerial Scholarship fund, c/o 
Regions Bank, Riverchase Branch, Birmingham, AL. 

Funeral arrangements: Hughey Funeral Home in Mt. Vernon, Illinois. Ridout's Southern 
Heritage Funeral Home in Pelham, Alabama, in charge of local arrangements. 



Date: May 30, 1999
Source: Birmingham News {AL}
Submitted by: Cindy Ford