Longtime pastor Connie Mack Bowers dies June 8

BOWERSVILLE — Connie Mack Bowers, 87, of Air Line School Road, died June 8, from lymphoma. He was the son of Dr. and Mrs. Stewart Vandiver Bowers and was married to his wife, Martha Claire Vassar, for 65 years.

He was serving as chaplain at St Mary’s Hospital in Lavonia at the time of his death.

A graduate of Hartwell High School, the University of Georgia, and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY, he served churches in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Georgia as well as a missionary with the Foreign Mission Board (now International Mission Board) in Nigeria, West Africa for 21 years.

Connie Mack Bowers

He was a longtime member of Cross Roads Baptist Church where he was baptized, married, ordained, and commissioned to the mission field. During his life he received numerous awards including the DAR Best Citizen Award and the Rotary Club Four Way Test Award. He was named pastor emeritus by Mine City Baptist Church in Ducktown, TN and Second Baptist Church in Chattanooga, TN. Five year ago he was honored by Orita Meta Baptist Church of Ibadan, Nigeria, when the church sent its current pastor to Georgia to present Connie Mack and Martha with a plaque and airline tickets for their return to the country.

He was a member and past president of Habit for Humanity and served on the boards of Nancy Hart Literacy Council, Hart County Historical Society, Hart Interfaith Ministry, and H.E.A.R.T Ministry of Franklin County.

After returning from Nigeria he worked in the Hart County Community and was very involved with Union Hill Baptist Church in Bowersville.

Bowers is survived by his wife and four children: Richard Bowers, Holly (Chuck) Welborn, and Julie (John) Lassiter, all of Anderson, SC; and Mack (Rita) Bowers of Atlanta; 10 grandchildren: Hillary Welborn, Ashby (Brandon) Stone, Malia Bowers, Chip (Nikki) Welborn, Jay Bowers, Will Lassiter, Benjamin Bowers, Jonathan Bowers, Lora Lassiter, and Christopher Bowers; and three siblings: Bill (Ruth) Bowers of Anderson, SC; Gene (Barbara) Bowers of Soperton, and Dixie Lewis of Hartwell. He was predeceased by his parents and four siblings: Harold Bowers, Mary Stewart Gurley Moorhead, Bobby Jo Mouchet, and Jack Bowers. He was also predeceased by a granddaughter, Martha Caroline Lassiter.

Services were held at Cross Roads Baptist Church in Hartwell on June 11.