The Rev. Joseph Prance traveled to St. Louis two evenings a week for many years, dropping off clothing, food and religious tracts at missions and outreach centers.
“He always took doughnuts,” his wife, Ella, said. “People might not know his name but they’d call him ‘The Doughnut Man.’”
The Rev. Prance died Aug. 12 at age 86 of complications from pneumonia. He was the founder and longtime pastor of Christian Fellowship Assembly in High Ridge.
He grew up in Flint, Mich., and joined the Army right out of high school, serving during the Korean War from 1951-1953 as a psychiatric technician at a hospital in Japan.
“When he came back, he got a job at the GM plant in Flint,” Ella said. “He was one of seven men who built the first Corvette in 1953.”
He was a guest of honor at the 50-year anniversary celebration held in Flint in 2003.
“He rode with the mayor in the lead Corvette of the parade and was on all the TV stations,” Ella said. “It was a wonderful thing.”
But it was a surprise for his family.
“He was a humble man and would never brag. We didn’t even know about it (his work on the Corvette) until they sent us something in the mail about the reunion,” Ella said with a laugh. “But our whole family went and really enjoyed it.”
The Prances met when he stopped in Cedar Hill to visit his sister on his way to New Orleans.
“We just hit it off,” Ella said.
They were married and added three children to the family: Mike, Bunny and Tanya.
Mr. Prance worked as a stonemason.
“His mother told him that when he was born, God gave her a vision that he was going to be a great man of God,” Ella said. “He said he always knew the calling was in his life, but he kind of resisted it until he was 33.”
She said one day the pastor of Faith Assembly of God in House Springs came by the Prance home and invited the family to church.
“Joe said, ‘Well, I’m going fishing this weekend, but maybe I’ll come next Sunday.’
“The next weekend, he did go, and when the altar call was given, he stepped out and walked down and that’s where he gave his heart to God. June 7, 1964, he was saved, as he termed it, and from then on, he was a real servant of God.”
Family members say he was the first person saved at the church, which recently held a 50th-anniversary commemoration of the event.
The Rev. Prance was soon called to start a ministry. For some years, he continued as a stonemason until church work became his full-time job.
“In 1966, he started a little storefront church in High Ridge called Christian Fellowship Assembly,” Ella said. “We stayed there about a year, then moved to the Essex Building in High Ridge for five years. Then we bought land at 3483 High Ridge Blvd. and built our current church.”
The Rev. Prance used many different avenues to spread his message of faith and compassion.
“He worked with Larry Rice’s New Life Evangelistic Center mission for 38 years and with the Salvation Army’s Harbor Light for 50 years,” Ella said.
He had a prison ministry at six institutions around the area, and held tent revivals around Missouri and Arkansas.
He was particularly fond of children’s ministry.
“He would drive the bus and pick up kids,” his wife said. “Every Sunday, no matter how many came, they knew he was going to stop and they’d all get an ice cream cone.”
He loved the outdoors and working in the garden.
“He and our younger daughter and some people from the church planted a ‘widows’ garden’ to give produce to those in need,” Ella said. “There’s enough in that garden now that we give to everybody in the church. He was so proud of that. He’d have me drive by there so he could look at it.”
The Rev. Prance contracted Guillain-Barre syndrome in 1992 and spent three months in the hospital. Barely a year later, he was sidelined by a heart attack.
“But he always bounced back. God wasn’t finished with him,” his wife said.
In recent weeks, he developed double pneumonia.
“They just couldn’t get his lungs cleared,” Ella said. “He went into the hospital, into the ICU, then died after five days.”
They family chose “When the Saints Go Marching In” for the closing song at the Rev. Prance’s funeral.
“He had said, ‘I don’t want anybody crying about me going to heaven,’” his wife said. “People left there without sadness.”
Ella said her husband will be remembered for celebrating the word of God and helping to spread the message.
She recalled an occasion when he was leaving after a tent revival and spied four young boys sitting on the curb nearby. He stopped to talk with them and offered a message of salvation.
“One of the boys told him later that his words ‘pounded at his heart and he couldn’t get it out of his mind,’” Ella said. “Today, that young man is a pastor. So Joe planted the (spiritual) seed and it went from there.
“That was his life, planting those seeds.”
“Life Story,” posted each Saturday on Leader Publications’ website, focuses on one individual’s impact on his or her community.