Rev. J.C. Flagg
03/11/1930 - 07/20/2022
Funeral service will be 1:00 p.m. EST, Saturday, July 30, 2022 at Good Hope Missionary Baptist Church, Seale, AL with Rev. H.C. McGruder, Pastor and Rev. Dr. Dorothy Anderson, eulogist. Interment to follow in St. Peter A.M.E Church Cemetery, Seale, AL. Visitation is Friday, July 29, 2022 from 1-5 p.m. EST.
Pastor Retired Rev. J. C. Flagg was born March 11, 1930 to Jessie and Rosa Flagg. He accepted the Lord as his personal Savior at an early age and attended Good Hope Missionary Baptist Church with his mother and father. He was educated in Russell County Schools, but had to leave school early to help support the family.
He left Seale, Alabama at the age of fifteen and moved to Columbus, Georgia where he met and married Vivian Crowell. They were blessed with four children, David, Dorothy, Gloria and Valerie. Despite having to leave school, he was gifted with an uncanny Math ability that allowed him to multiply, subtract and divide columns of numbers in his head. He amazed his children by figuring out their math problems in his head before they could on paper.
After Vivian’s untimely death in 1978 the Lord blessed him with a wife that all his children approved of and loved, Leola Gardner.
He worked at the Falstaff/Budweiser Beer company in Columbus, Georgia until he received the call to preach. After receiving the call to preach he realized that his reading ability was inadequate, and that stocking beer was a contradiction to his life’s calling by God. Therefore, as an adult he returned to night school to get his GED and quit his job. He had several short-term jobs until his perfect driving record brought him to the attention of D. A. Turner and his family. They actively pursued him to be their driver for the patriarch of the family. As an African American man, he negotiated with one of the most powerful families in Columbus, Georgia until his needs were met. He only accepted the job with the salary that he demanded and the stipulation that he was free on Sunday to attend church.
He began his ministry career at Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church under Pastor G. H. Henry. He served as assistant pastor to both Pastor Hunter at Hunter’s Chapel and Pastor Harris at Mount Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church. He became the Pastor of Good Hope Missionary Baptist Church in 1970. He served Good Hope, a church he attended as a child for about 25 years. Under his leadership the current sanctuary was built with air conditioning and a baptistry was installed in 1972. The Fellowship Hall was added in 1980. After resigning from Good Hope, he became the Pastor of Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church. Where he pastored until his retirement. There was no job too small for him as Pastor. He took it upon himself to plant flowers and shrubbery around the church. As a result, he was awarded a key to the city for beautification of the area.
He was preceded in death by three children, David, Gloria Ward and Valerie Flagg Edmond of Columbus, Georgia; granddaughter, Vita Strum; wife, Leola Gardner Flagg and his two siblings Jessie Flagg, Jr. and Annie Pearl Moses.
He leaves to mourn his oldest daughter, Rev. Dr. Dorothy Flagg-Anderson of Spring Lake, North Carolina; spiritual daughter, Evangelist Linda Holloway of Columbus, Georgia; grandchildren David L. (Shalonda) Flagg of Alabama, Tiffany Anderson of Fayetteville, North Carolina, Natalae (Orlando) Velez of North Bergen, New Jersey, Myeisha (Michael David) Reid of North Carolina; one niece, Lula Harris of Phenix City, Alabama; two nephews, Arthur Flagg of Florida and Johnnie Flagg of Mobile, Alabama; one daughter-in-law, Linda Flagg, eight great grandchildren, six great great-grandchildren and all those he befriended and tirelessly served as Pastor for over fifty years.