Dale Marie Weatherford

Born August 3, 1954 to L.B. & Doris Gunn in Manila, Arkansas.

Her daddy called her the bologna, because she was his favorite between two pieces of bread - her older brother was Gary, and her younger brother, Sherrill.

Gary and his wife, Christy, live in Gallatin, TN and have three grown daughters, and lots of grandchildren that call him Pop Gunn.

Sherrill lives in Georgetown, KY, near his daughter Megan and his three grandchildren.

Dale's maternal Grandparents (Doyle and Olive White) lived next door to her until college. They and First Baptist Church of Manila and all its members raised her, shaped her, and taught her to love God's Word.

She received an AA degree from Southern Baptist College, now Williams University in Walnut Ridge, Arkansas. She was studying to be a nurse but spent all of her time on performing music scholarships and Baptist Student Union activities.

In 1975, David & Dale married and began to serve the Lord together in Tucson, Arizona as ministers of music and Bible teachers while both attending the University of Arizona.

In 1981, David earned his Master's Degree in Computer Science. They moved to Denver, Colorado and Dale began a lifetime of volunteering and parenting. A highlight of those years was the planting of a baby church with Jack and Doris Day, and soon after, the birth of their two children, Jeremy and Katy. They continued to lead the church for two years after Jack and Doris returned to Brazil for a missionary assignment.

In 1985, they transferred to New Jersey with Bell Laboratories, and served the Terrill Road Baptist Church as a family. Favorite projects included developing full-length concerts and working with the Southern Baptist Convention's Home Mission Board as Church Renewal Specialists. They began volunteering as Evangelistic Musicians for area churches (which included all of New York, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania). Dale was teaching Bible - sometimes as many as five different groups per week - and got her first taste of women's abuse counseling.

In 1990, God led them to relocate to California where David worked for Sun Microsystems, Tensilica, and finally Cadence. Jeremy was 8 and Katy was 6 when they moved. Highlights for those early years were taking concerts on the road. In 1992, they did 53 different concerts in area churches. They also found much more freedom in home educating their two children and Dale said it was the happiest time of her life to pass on what God had taught her to her growing children.

Dale became heavily involved with counseling abused women, ministering to the homeless, and helping with an after-school Christian club in East Palo Alto (murder capital of the US). She missed being a part of Jeremy and his wife, Kim's, lives as they located cross-country. Highlights for those years were getting to meet and visit her first grandson, Ian, and first granddaughter, Rinnah - but there was never enough time together.

After caring for her elderly parents, David and Dale became very active at Abundant Life Christian Fellowship and helped establish a Growth Group family that survived 11 years together. David and Dale designed and taught an introductory vocal, choral, & music theory workshop that resulted in the development of a gospel choir. Highlight of that time period was getting to spend the first 4 years of their second grandson's life with him and their daughter, Katy.

In 2017, they felt certain that God was calling them to Florida to begin a new type of ministry. They followed in obedience. In 2019, Dale lost the ability to stand, and life took a big turn. Together, David and Dale began to pursue writing Bible studies online since she could no longer teach.

In 2023, she lost the ability to sit up, and God called her to write historical novels in order to teach Bible to a wider audience. She pursued her writing the same way she pursued pastoring and parenting - with every ounce of energy that she had to give. In late 2023, tiny granddaughter-number-two, Layla Rose, made an early appearance and Dale got to hold her and watch her grow.

Dale had chosen to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, God's own Son, who came to earth, died for her sins, and conquered death by resurrecting 3 days later. Because she chose to follow Him, she had no fear of death, and we can know with assurance that she is in Heaven with Jesus even as we remember her short time on earth.



Her favorite verse: Psalm 40, verse 8: "I delight to do Thy will, O my God."