Charles Kenneth Locke

Charles Kenneth Locke, third child of Morgan Locke and Thelma Jones Locke, died in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, at the age of ninety-one.

Although raised in west Texas and an ardent fan of Westerns by Louis L’Amour and Zane Grey, Ken, or Kenneth, as he was variously called by family and friends, was an urbanite at heart. He was raised in his father’s dry cleaning business, becoming a master of the steam press. Because of that, he retained a lifelong pleasure in clean clothes and pressed pants.

After completing college at Texas A&M University, Ken was immediately commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant of Infantry in the United States Army. It was while he was on his way to his first duty station in Korea that he met Lou Ann Lewis on the train to San Francisco. The stories of their courtship in San Francisco are the stuff of family legend.

Apparently, the courtship, which continued through letters, worked. As soon as he could, Ken left the Army, earned enough money for a one-way airplane ticket to Hong Kong, and joined Lou Ann there. They were married in 1958 and remained in Hong Kong until 1962. During that time, their first son, Kenneth, was born, and Ken earned a master’s degree in teaching English as a second language from Hong Kong University.

After returning to the United States, Ken and Lou Ann welcomed their second son, Larry, and Ken earned his doctorate in psychology at North Texas State University in Denton. He worked as the school counselor at Weatherford College in Weatherford, Texas.

Although he had trained as a counselor, Ken probably would have preferred to spend his time flipping houses and living the life of a gentleman farmer. But Lou Ann had other dreams, and Ken was devoted to helping her realize them. At a time when the Southern Baptist Foreign Mission Board was hiring only men, Lou Ann desperately wanted to go back on the mission field in Hong Kong. And so, Ken applied, and before long the whole family was in Hong Kong.

Eventually, Lou Ann and Ken were also missionaries in China and Russia, as well as making occasional forays to Outer Mongolia and other far-away places. When asked why he had agreed to his wife’s plans and gone along with them, Ken responded to the effect that there was a job to be done on the mission field and that he could do it well. So, why not?

Ken dabbled in many things, particularly during his ten years as the school counselor at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, Arkansas. He and Lou Ann flipped houses. They bought land and planted trees on it. Then, they planted an orchard. They kept bees and harvested the honey, giving most of it away. But through it all, Ken’s true passion was gardening. Everywhere he lived, he managed to plant something, no matter how terrible the soil. In his final years in Brown Springs, a few miles from Arkadelphia, his garden must have been close to five acres. Why a couple in their seventies and eighties needed a garden that big is unclear. But he enjoyed working in it, and Lou Ann enjoyed canning the produce he grew.

Ken’s last years were marked by increased confusion and physical deterioration. Lou Ann died in 2019 and, though he managed to live without her well enough, her passing marked the beginning of his own decline. If he had been able to somehow step out of himself and view his physical and mental state, he surely would have thought it was long past time to go.

Ken served God well, often in trying circumstances. He was committed to his wife, though she was not always easy to love. His eldest son remembers his dad’s care for him after jaw surgery when he was in college and how whenever he needed his dad or just craved his company, especially in his dad’s later years, he was always there. Former students and counselees have testified to his compassion and professional skill.

From making a home in distant lands, to traveling by bus with his family from Kathmandu to London, to escaping China with Lou Ann during the Tiananmen Square uprising in 1989 so they could make it home for their eldest son’s wedding, to the stories he told about growing up in Del Rio, Texas, and the stories he told of some of the outlandish places he had visited and worked in, to allowing his life to demonstrate Christianity in action to those in atheist countries, Ken lived a full and meaningful life.

Finally, it should be noted that Ken enjoyed being physically fit. He practiced yoga and power-walked regularly. He was also an avid swimmer. His family remembers him swimming in the Llano River in Texas, the South China Sea in Hong Kong, Arkadelphia’s own Lake DeGray, and various other bodies of water around the world. We are gratified to know that he is now swimming in the River of Life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and the Lamb (Rev. 22:1).

Ken is predeceased by his wife, Lou Ann Lewis Locke; his sister Shirley Locke Johnson; and his brothers Morgan Locke and Alan Locke. He is survived by his brother Larry Locke (Doris), sons Ken (Elizabeth) and Larry (Lisa), three grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.

Services will be held at 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday, June 11, 2025 at Ruggles-Wilcox Chapel in Arkadelphia.

Arrangements by Smith Family Funeral Home, 517 Clay Street, Arkadelphia, Arkansas. www.smithfamilycares.com