The late radio evangelist Lester Roloff — founder of a controversial ministry that operated homes for homeless alcoholics and then troubled teens — would likely be pleased that his sermons live on in the digital age.

A YouTube search turns up almost 150 clips of his preaching. Dozens of websites feature audio segments of his strident inveighing against the ills of Communism, psychology, television, alcohol and tobacco.

Roloff, a vegan raw-food enthusiast, even preached against pork.

In his later years, radio evangelist Lester Roloff (1914-82) gained notoriety for his battles with state authorities determined to regulate the controversial children’s homes his organization had operated for decades. He took his case for church-state separation to the U.S. Supreme Court, which refused to hear his appeal and upheld Texas law on Oct. 2, 1978.
Corpus Christi Caller-Times photo

A native of Dawson, located about 35 miles northeast of Waco, Roloff also has a Facebook page of more than 3,300 fans — a healthy following for a man who has been dead for more than a quarter-century.

Born June 28, 1914, the youngest of three sons to Harry Augustus and Sadie Isabel (McKenzie) Roloff, the young Lester was raised in a strict Baptist atmosphere.

Lester Roloff died some 68 years later, in a plane crash during a thunderstorm about 90 miles east of Waco near Normangee on Nov. 2, 1982.

Between those two events, the colorful Central Texan raised a ruckus that his admirers called righteous and others decried as rigid and repressive.

Hearing the call

Roloff liked to tell his audiences that he felt the call to ministry in 1932, when he was 18 years old and living on his family’s farm near Dawson. He began hauling hay and picking cotton to pay for his first year’s tuition to Baylor University.

The next year, he took his Jersey cow, Marie, with him to college, where he sold the fresh milk to pay for his room and board. The legend goes that when the budding pastor had to deliver his first sermon for a religion class, he memorized it so he could recite it to Marie.

Roloff was soon leading revivals around Waco, whipping crowds into religious fervor. According to Roloff lore, in tiny Purdon, about 45 miles from Baylor, the town’s gambling hall closed and the local bootlegger went out of business after Roloff saved almost 200 souls one night.

The young Southern Baptist preacher pastored small congregations in tiny towns like Trinidad, Shiloh and Navarro Mills. But Roloff set his sights on grabbing greater audiences through the airwaves.

During World War II, after he had married and moved to Corpus Christi, Roloff began broadcasting a daily radio show called “The Family Altar,” in which he sang gospel songs and condemned vices such as whiskey, wild women and the movies.

His 30-minute show, started in 1944, was soon picked up by KWBU-AM, then a 50,000-watt station operated through the Baptist General Convention of Texas. The station was run commercially from the Corpus Christi area by former Baylor trustee Carr P. Collins, an insurance magnate.

Roloff was a fixture on Christian radio starting with the 1944 founding of “The Family Altar.”
Roloff.org photo

KWBU’s signal reached 22 states. As more listeners tuned in, Roloff made the leap to full-time evangelism. He acquired and drove around in a “gospel van” equipped with loudspeakers and an organ — equipment for his tent meetings that drew thousands.

Roloff enjoyed his role as agent provocateur of Baptist life, adopting an independent fundamentalism that raised eyebrows even among his BGCT colleagues.

For example, he loudly protested the Baylor decision in 1947 to honor President Harry S. Truman with an honorary degree, saying the salty-tongued Missourian was undeserving of a Christian kudo despite being the first Southern Baptist to occupy the White House.

His final break with the Baptist General Convention of Texas came in 1955, when Roloff was banned from KWBU for broadcasting disparaging remarks about his Baptist brothers.

(Ironically, he bought the then-struggling station a year later for $300,000 — $2.3 million in today’s dollars — and changed its call letters to KCTA, Know Christ The Answer. It still operates in Corpus Christi).

‘Swan song’ to Baylor

Roloff’s “swan song to Baylor” came on March 13, 1956, when he preached to a crowd of 2,000 at Waco Hall in the heart of campus that he was eschewing the Southern Baptist label.

In his screed against denominations, he decried the role that fractious religions had played and “have regimented and enslaved the people with the ultimatum you either bow or burn. Since most folks’ faith is not fireproof, they acquiesce to the program.”

He concluded, “I guess I’m just a knothole Baptist; I’m on the outside but still seeing and saying what the Lord wants me to say. . . . Now, if this is my swan song, let me sing the amen, too. ”

In his later years, Roloff gained some nationwide notoriety in his battles with state authorities determined to license and regulate the controversial children’s homes he ran for decades.

On Nov. 1, 1977, Roloff and 1,500 clergy colleagues staged a church-state separation rally in Dallas called “Save Our Nation,” attended by more than 10,000 supporters. Roloff took his case to the U.S. Supreme Court, which upheld Texas law on Oct. 2, 1978. Rather than submit to Texas licensing, he transferred the young residents to his other enterprises across the South.

Early in his ministry, Roloff became a licensed pilot. He flew extensively, many times accompanied by vocalists who would perform before and after his sermons. When his plane crashed on Nov. 2, 1982, he was accompanied by the Jubilee Trio (Cheryl Palmer, Elona Slade and Sue Smith), along with Elaine Winger, a supervisor from one of his delinquent children’s homes. There were no survivors.
Roloff.org photo

Long an avid aviator, Roloff enjoyed flying to numerous preaching engagements. On Nov. 2, 1982, Roloff and four young passengers were killed when the plane he was piloting crashed near Normangee, in Leon County, during a flight to a preaching and singing service they were scheduled to conduct in Kansas City.

He was interred in Corpus Christi’s Memory Gardens Cemetery.

Sources: Roloff.org; Handbook of Texas Online: “Texas Signs On” by Richard Schroeder (1998, Texas A&M University Press); “The Land, the Law and the Lord: The Life of Pat Neff” by David L. Scott, Dorothy and Terrell Blodgett (2007, Home Place Publishers); EarnestlyContending.com; GoToTheBible.com; and Caller.com.