Former Alton minister dies

J. Tyre Denney, a long-time pastor of Alton Baptist Church, died Sunday, Feb. 14 at the Hospice Care Center in Lexington.

He was 79.

Denney, a Lawrenceburg resident, served at Alton Baptist for over 29 years and as a columnist for The Anderson News.

Denney was senior pastor at the Lighthouse Baptist Church in Shelbyville and had previous served at a host of church including Calvary Baptist Church in Marion, Ala., Happy Home Baptist Church in Leeds, Ala., Eden Westside Baptist Church in Pell City, Ala., North Benson Baptist Church in Frankfort. He served interim pastor at Pigeon Fork Baptist Church and Evergreen Baptist Church in Frankfort.

He served as chairman of the finance (budget) committee, chairman of the director search committee and a member of their speakers bureau for the Kentucky League on Alcohol and Gambling Problems, Louisville, from 1995 to 2007.

He served as program chairman, moderator of the St. Clair Association in the 1960s; as moderator of the Anderson Association in the 1970s and 80s; three times on the Kentucky Executive Board (Now Mission Board) in the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s. He chaired the minister and church relations committee, was vice chairman of the administrative committee and second vice president of Kentucky Baptist Convention in the 1990s.

He was a graduate of Sanford University in Birmingham, Ala. and of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville.