PAINTSVILLE – The man killed in a two-car accident along U.S. 23 near Allen earlier this week was mourned in Johnson County and remembered as a devoted man of God.

John Pelphrey, 81, was killed Tuesday morning while was trying to pull across the southbound lanes of U.S. 23 in his 2008 Toyota Rav 4 when he collided with a southbound 2009 Chevrolet Traverse driven by Terri L. Edwards, of Prestonsburg.

Now Paintsville residents are remembering a man who preached for more than 65 years in and around the region.

Pelphrey had only recently retired as the minister of the United Baptist Church in Paintsville, where he had held services since 1981.

Friends and loved ones such as the church’s current preacher, Chris Rowland, spoke to the media shortly after Pelphrey’s death, saying in recent years though the 81-year-old’s health had started to decline, he had been most powerful in the pulpit in the last years before his retirement a few months ago.

For Rowland, the death is the loss of a mentor, a man who helped him to see his own calling.

“I feel like I’ve lost my mentor in the ministry,” Rowland told WYMT this week. “I’ve been here since 1997 with Brother John, and we’ve always worked well together.”

Others who knew Pelphrey remembered him as a man who drew members to the congregation with his personality, one of unshakable faith and warmth who visited the sick, reaching out to his community through the work of God.

“He helped the church by going, and visiting. He visited the sick. He was very good about that till his health failed him and he couldn’t do it,” Church member Bill Johnson said in interviews shortly after Pelphrey’s death. “People respected him, and they wanted to be where he was at. We got a lot of members because of John being John Pelphrey.”