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Former Editor Tommy Manning Passes

Carlton Oakley

October 26, 2021

Rick Watson, current President/CFO of Free Will Baptist Press, wrote in a recent email, “When someone is departed for a number of years and is still in the conversation, they either did really well or really bad. In Mr. Manning's case I believe it was the former.”

According to an editorial written in the December 11, 1968 issue of The Free Will Baptist magazine, the Rev. C. H. Overman stepped down after 11 years as editor, and Mr. Manning’s name appears on the masthead of the January 8, 1969 magazine as Acting Editor of Literature. He was listed along with 22 other Press employees extending Christmas greetings on the back cover of the December 18, 1968 issue of The Free Will Baptist as it had the previous year and back to the December 23, 1964 magazine. In other words, his association with Free Will Baptist Press dates back before half of the current employees were born. According to an article in the June 24, 1981 magazine, Mr. Manning continued as editor until August 20, 1980.

How does one ext