Much of the information available about L.D. and Clara Summers is found in a small book published in 1933 entitled "Select Poems and Park Place Baptist Church, where L.D. was the pastor for many years.   Many of the photographs in this biographical sketch are taken from this book.

L.D. was born April 27, 1878 in Paris, Henry County, Tennessee.  His father, John Stanley Summers was born in Henry County, Tennessee, and his mother,Sara Elizabeth (Sallie) Henderson, was born in Paris Landing,Henry County, Tennessee. Their family apparently was a loving one.   L.D. dedicated the poem "Beautiful Hands" in the Park Place book to his mother, writing, "Mrs. S.E. Summers, Puryear, Tennessee, taught me to sing this song when a child..."   In dedicating another poem, "Never Give Up" to his older brother, John Elbert Summers, L.D. wrote, "Many times when I was blue, my brother, J.E. Summers, of Puryear, Tennessee, would sing this song to me."

This is the way the people went to the Baptism at Cottage Grove, Tennessee.   They are at the place where L.D. Summers was baptised, Jones Old Mill, on north fork of Obion River.


L.D. learned the skill of a carpenter as a boy and it served him well throughout the years, but his true calling was to be a Baptist minister.   He attended school in Spring Hill, Tennessee, "out from Paris", where Clara Belle Petty was teaching. Clara had attended Hall Moody "Normal School", a Baptist College which is now part of the University of Tennessee system. The normal schools were forerunners of teachers' colleges where people were taught how to teach others.   She lived in Martin, Tennessee with her uncle and aunt, Benjamin M. and Fanny Poynter while she attended this school.   L.D. fell in love with Clara and wanted to marry her. When he proposed, she said yes and they were married May 20, 1899 in the home of W.H. Greer in Paris, Tennessee.   They lived in the surrounding area where L.D. began his pastoring in 1903 after attending Soutwestern Baptist University in Jackson, Madison County, Tennessee.  He was ordained in 1903. Their first son, L.D.Jr., was born February 24, 1904 in Paris, Tennessee.

Home of W.H. Greer, Paris, Tennessee, where L.D. and Clara started living together May 20, 1899.


They moved to Greenfield, Weakley County, Tenneessee where he became the pastor of First Baptist Church of Greenfield. This is where their second child, John Homer Summers, was born December 14, 1906. Opal Eudora, their third child and named after Clara's mother, Eurdora Poynter Petty, was born August 27, 1908. Opal died as a young woman. Her untimely death must surely have been a tragic event for L.D. and Clara. After her death, the family moved back to Puryear where their fourth child, Clara Belle (Taddy) was born August 27, 1910.

This photograph of a Baptism was made years ago at Greenfield, Tennessee, at the time L.D. Summers was pastor of First Baptist Church there.


In 1913, L.D. and Clara moved to Blytheville, Arkansas. At that time, Arkansas was thought of as a place of nothing but swamps, snakes, and malaria. One must wonder if that was the reason L.D. and Clara decided to move there since it was such a horrible place, feeling there must have been a need to deliver their message. L.D. became the minister of First Baptist Church of Blytheville. On January 16, 1916, Alicia Perla Blanton was born. On January 24, 1916 she became the fifth child of the Summers family. They lived in Blytheville for seven years, moving to Jonesboro, Arkansas in 1920. Again, L.D. was stalwart in the church, helping found Jonesboro Baptist College in 1924. He provided spiritual leadership as well as physical leadership. He also provided manual labor with his carpentering skills! His son, John, remembers helping work on laying the foundation of the first building constructed.

Laying the brick foundation of Jonesboro College.

The family must have been rambunctious as John remembered his father saying many times at the dinner table, "I want nothing but silence and very little of that!" It is difficult to know if this were a harsh command to the troops, ironic humor or both. I choose the latter since I have always thought it was extremely clever and funny.

In 1926 L.D. and Clara moved the family to Hot Springs, Garland County, Arkansas. He was pastor of Park Place Baptist Church, lovingly dubbed "The Little White Church in the Valley", from which his services and sermons were broadcast over Hot Springs radio station KTHS. People as far away as Tennessee listened to his programs.   They remained in Hot Springs at Park Place Baptist until 1935, when they moved to Mena, Arkansas.

Park Place Baptist Church, Hot Springs, Arkansas, 1932


In Mena, Arkansas, as Minister of First Baptist Church, he was drafted by the business community to publicize the area as a tourist attraction which he did by succesfully leading the Polk County Publicity Association in the development of an active tourist trade. He was also active in the drive that eventually resulted in the closing of Commonwealth College, a small school now listed by the US Justice Department as subversive because of its alleged Communist doctrines.

In 1945, the family moved back to Hot Springs where he was pastor of Emanuel Baptist Church when he retired. While in Hot Springs, he was an active member of the Hot Springs Ministerial Alliance. L.D. was well known as an evangelist and was active in state denominational affairs. He served as Field Secretary of Jonesboro Baptist College, Assistant General Secretary of the Arkansas Baptist Convention, and as Business Manager of Central College in Conway, Arkansas. After his retirement, he was a member of Hot Springs' Central Baptist Church. He also was a member of Masonic Lodge No. 419.

Luther Davis Summers in 1924 at the Arkansas State Baptist Convention held in Little Rock, Arkansas November 19-21, 1924.


Luther Davis Summers died June 15, 1953. His wife, Clara Belle, lived on until October 12, 1964. He affected many lives throughout his life. There are many stories that will never be told. However, there is one story that came back to me upon publishing the Summers Family History Web Page in January, 2000. One day I received an email from a man who wrote the following: "I was really surprised when I found the Summers family tree on my Garland County List. When I was a little boy until I was age six or seven, Dr. L.D. Summers was my pastor at he Park Place Baptist Church in Hot Springs, Arkansas. My dad was a deacon in that church and guarded Dr. Summers' house when it was threatened by a bunch of gangsters. I will never forget the Sunday that he was preaching and then gave an invitation and this guy walked down the aisle and said that he had come to kill him but instead accepted Christ. I had not heard from anyone concerning the Summers family until now."