Reverend Charles E. Dodd, Jr.

On April 12, 1924 in Bartlesville, Oklahoma a little boy was born to Elbert and Jessie Brown Dodd. He was their only child. When he was two years old his father was called to preach so they lived in Muskogee, Dewey, Davenport and Tulsa, Oklahoma as his father pastored in the Nazarene churches there.

In 1938 they moved to Louisiana. He attended Lake Charles High School and was a cheerleader his senior year. In December 1941 Pearl Harbor was bombed and WWII started. He graduated in May 1942.

In November of 1942, while he was attending Trevecca Nazarene College in Nashville, Tennessee, he joined the Coast Guard. He served on the United States Coast Guard Cutter Spencer. He was a signalman and made 13 invasions in the Pacific while serving on the Spencer.

While home on leave in August 1944, he married DeJuana LeJeune. They were married 38 years. After his honorable discharge they started their married life in Tulsa, Oklahoma with him in college at Oklahoma State University. He was called to preach while in college. In 1949 he graduated from Bethany Peniel College with two degrees. He pastored Nazarene churches in Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Iowa. He also pastored Bible Missionary churches in Iowa and Texas.

He worked as the appliance manager at Montgomery Ward for many years. After he retired he continued to work at M. Simon Furniture until 2010 when he was 86 years old. In 2014, he went to live at the Southwest Louisiana Veterans Home in Jennings. He died at the Home on Sunday, April 22, 2018 at the age of 94.

Charles and DeJuana had six children, Brenda (Ed) Reed of Gillis, Charles (Janie) Dodd of Lake Charles, Paul (Carol) Dodd of Caldwell, Idaho, Dan (Leilani) Dodd of Milan, Illinois, LaJuana (Tim) Luckey of Nampa, Idaho and LaDonna (Chris) Atkinson of Crowley. There are 20 grandchildren, 31 great grandchildren and 3 great-great grandchildren.

Charles had a second family. There were four children in this family, Brock, Rusty (Denise), Forrest (Crystal) and Sandy. There are numerous grandchildren.

Charles is preceded in death by his parents and two aunts that were raised with him whom he thought of as sisters, Dorothy Dodd Plemons and Ruby Brown McClung.

Visitation will be Thursday, April 26, 2018 at Johnson Funeral Home from 5-9PM and will resume on Friday from 10AM-2PM. Funeral services will begin at 2PM at the funeral home with Rev. Don Plemons and Rev. Joel Faulk officiating. His final resting place will be Prien Memorial Park.

The family would like to thank the wonderful people that work on Unit 3 at the Southwest Louisiana Veteran Home in Jennings. They went out of their way to make Dad’s last few years enjoyable and they laughed at him and with him at some of his antics. What a character he could be. We really appreciate all of you. We also want to thank Lamm Family Care for their outstanding care shown to our dad. You helped make his final days comfortable. Thank you all!!!