Ellis, Carroll Brooks

Carroll Brooks Ellis, longtime minister and a prominent Lipscomb professor, and Jack Cox, well-known minister and worker in India, have died. Ellis, 83, died June 7 at his home in Nashville, Tenn., of heart failure. Born May 24, 1919, in Booneville, Miss., Ellis preached for 65 years. He served congregations in Texas, in Louisiana, and five in Nashville — the Chapel Avenue church for two extended tenures and Waverly Belmont, Brookmeade, Otter Creek and Acklen Avenue.

He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of North Texas, Denton; and his master’s and doctorate from Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge. While at LSU he met and married his late wife Ellen Elizabeth Moore, always known as “Tottie.”

Ellis taught from 1949-89 at Lipscomb University, Nashville, where he was a professor of speech and chairman of the then department of speech. He received numerous academic honors including Who’s Who in American Education; President, Southern Speech Communications Association; President, Pi Kappa Delta; and was named a Distinguished Alumnus for 2002 by the University of North Texas. He was among the first group of inductees into the Lipscomb Hall of Fame. Lipscomb University historian Robert Hooper credits Ellis, Ira North and Batsell Barrett Baxter with introducing a different delivery style for preaching which became a widely-accepted norm in churches of Christ.

Survivors include a daughter, Mufti Phillips, Chattanooga, Tenn.; two sons Carroll Brooks Ellis, Dallas, and Bernie W. Ellis, Greenville, S. C.; one sister, Frances Bauman; and seven grandchildren. Memorials may be made to the Ellis Restoration Preaching Scholarship, Lipscomb University. ---Christian Chronicle,

Comments by Carolyn Wilson, 6/10/2002, for the Otter Creek bulletin

Carroll Ellis began the funeral service for my mother with these words, “This is both a tender and a tragic moment….” As I listened to the tributes to Carroll at his own service on Monday, those words came back to me and they were appropriate. Mother frequently told us she wanted Dr. Ellis to do her funeral because “he always said the right thing.”

There is no way to measure the impact Carroll Ellis had on other lives. It covered such a tremendous range. He influenced more young men to preach than anyone I knew, and he taught them how to preach. I sat in his Bible classes and I remember especially his favorite course, the Parables. Countless memories surface from his years of preaching at Otter Creek. Carroll always sent everyone in the congregation Christmas cards, carefully scripted in his beautiful handwriting and always carrying a personal note about the person to whom the card was sent. He had a special gift for touching the young and the old.

Few of us will ever forget one Sunday when Carroll was passionately preaching--he was always passionate in his preaching—as usual moving rapidly while he spoke, and he threw out the question, “If the devil knocked on your

door, what would YOU do?” A very young and enthralled Christopher Jennings from the front row responded very decisively, “I would open up the door and let him in!” Needless to say, it brought down the house, and Carroll in his usual fashion stood there chuckling until he cried. Denny remarked Monday that no one cried and laughed more readily than Carroll. It was so.

I recall Carolyn Maddux once said soon after Vardeman died that Carroll Ellis was the biggest little man she ever knew. No one perceived Carroll as small, in spite of his stature. He was truly a giant among men.

When the roses bloomed, we looked forward to hearing Carroll patter into the library with a vase of gorgeous roses. This spring we have missed the roses and it was obvious that Carroll was declining in health. The absence of his presence is tragic for all of us who loved him. The memories are tender. And the legacy will endure.

Comments by Sandra Collins

Carroll Ellis stories are legendary. I remember the large man who wanted to be baptized but was terrified of going under water. Carroll reassured him, but each time he took the man under, the man’s hand would come out and grab the top of Carroll’s head. After several attempts to take the man completely under, Carroll went down under the water with him.

Another story was a sadder one. As Carroll was preaching, a woman hurried down the aisle, walked up on the stage, and peered into the baptistery. She had looked everywhere for her little boy and became convinced that he had found the baptistery and had fallen in.