December 1, 1935 – August 8, 2021
The family of Merle Fulmer will celebrate his life of 85 years at 2:00 pm on Saturday, August 21, 2021, at the Lake Chapel Cemetery in Fairfield, Texas. His family will host a time of fellowship and remembrance from 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm, Sunday, August 15, 2021, at Lake Ridge Chapel and Memorial Designers. He passed on Sunday, August 8, 2021. We invite you to view the live-streamed service on this page, sign his virtual guestbook, and download his memorial keepsake folder to your device for printing. We also ask you to consider viewing his Life Tribute, a video of photographs set to his favorite music.
On December 1, 1935, Merle was born to John and Louise Fulmer in Grapeland, Texas. Merle attended school in Houston, Texas, and graduated from John H. Reagan High School. Merle then attended Jacksonville Baptist College where he met Mary Ann Casey, and they were married on August 29, 1958, in the First Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Texas. He surrendered to the ministry in 1960, and in his fifty plus years in the ministry he served as pastor or associate pastor of the following churches: Round Prairie Baptist Church (Fairfield, TX); First Baptist Church (Bardwell, TX); Sage Terrace Baptist Church (Brownfield, TX); Jefferson Heights Baptist Church (Oklahoma City, OK); Colonial Baptist Church (Lubbock, TX); Southwest Baptist Church (Lubbock, TX); College Avenue Baptist Church (Levelland, TX); Calvary Baptist Church (Crockett, TX); Fifth Street Baptist Church (Levelland, TX); Lakeridge Baptist Church (Lubbock, TX); Slide Baptist Church (Lubbock, TX); and First Baptist Church (McAdoo, TX). Merle also loved different types of music and enjoyed being a disc jockey at radio stations in Jacksonville (where he would sign off each evening playing “Deep Purple” for Mary Ann), Brownfield, Crockett, Levelland, and Lubbock. Merle loved spending time with his family. One of his favorite pastimes (that his grandchildren will certainly miss) was singing Elvis’s “It’s Christmas Time, Pretty Baby” every Thanksgiving. His children and grandchildren will miss him saying, “You’re burning daylight” when they were not getting in a big enough hurry for him, and his signature saying, “Remember who you are!”.
Survivors include his wife, Mary Ann; their children, Melissa (Glenn) Warren, Tonya (Lance) Dunn, and Kristi (Michael) Burtch; grandchildren, Kayla (Stephen) Overstreet, Kari (Eric) Hamilton, Katie (Jared) Alderson, Christopher (Nikki) Burtch, Mollie Burtch, and Noah Burtch; great-grandchildren, Cooper and Canton Overstreet, and Blakely Hamilton; and brother, Dale Fulmer.
His parents, John and Louise Fulmer, and sister, Christine Casey, preceded him in death.
Memorials
Because Merle suffered from macular degeneration during the last few years of his life, his family has designated the American Macular Degeneration Foundation and the Bright Focus Foundation for memorial contributions for research for a cure donated in his memory.
