Clinchmore native Clarence Duncan marks milestones this week

TOP PHOTO: Dr. Clarence and Jane Duncan.

By Jim Freeman

JACKSBORO, TN (WLAF)- There just aren’t that many active 90-year old men much less any who are still practicing their craft. Clarence Duncan, known to most of us as Dr. Duncan, is far more the exception than the rule. Duncan’s in the pulpit twice on Sundays and once on Wednesday nights at Bethel Baptist Church atop Hatmaker Ridge at Jacksboro. That’s not to mention his radio and television ministry heard and seen over WLAF Radio and TV, daily for radio, Sundays for television.

On this date in 1934, Duncan was born at Clinchmore, though the well traveled minister has made many stops along the way with his life partner, wife Jane, by his side. However, it was determined in 1984 after Duncan was called to Bethel Baptist Church a second time 40 years ago that this would be the couple’s last stop. He told the church. “I’m selling my home in Dalton, Georgia, to make my home here, and I’ll be here until one of us dies.”

A favorite Dr. Duncan story is from his teenage years when he wondered how a man as dumb as his father could have a son as smart as Clarence. Just Monday during his radio broadcast, Dr. Duncan referenced his dad thanking him for teaching him and pointing him in the right direction.

Everyone is invited to a celebration of the life and ministry of Dr. Clarence and Jane Duncan on Saturday at 2pm. “Please no presents just your presence is what we’d love,” said Dr. Duncan. The celebration will be at Bethel Baptist Church Fellowship Hall at 368 Asbury at Jacksboro.

This is a photo from 2019 of Dr. Duncan in his home studio which looks out over East Beech Street.

Here’s Duncan by the numbers:

90 years of living

62 years in the ministry

6 years as pastor of three different churches

40 years as pastor of Bethel Baptist Church at Jacksboro

39 years on the radio six days a week with more than 12,000 broadcasts

32 years on WLAF-TV 1089 two times each Sunday totaling more than 3,000 telecasts

9 years in children’s ministry

7 years of prison ministry

The couple married as teenagers and raised seven children.  They met in church and were married in that same church, Pleasant View Baptist Church on Black Oak Ridge in Anderson County, in 1952.

When asked what has carried him all these years, Duncan quickly responded, “Oh, the love of the Lord and my precious wife.  She’s the best.” (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED – 07/23/2024-6AM)

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