C. C. Brasher Jr.

C. C. Brasher Jr. died at 9:47 p.m. on Thursday, 12 November 2026, at the Ray and Kay Eckstein Hospice Center in Paducah, Kentucky, aged 84. His death was reported by Kentucky Today and in an obituary from Filbeck-Cann Funeral Home published by local outlets on 13 November. Visitation and the funeral were arranged for 15 November 2026 at the Life Celebration Center of Filbeck-Cann in Benton, with burial at Miller Cemetery in Livingston County. The honorary pallbearers were the surviving deacons he had served with at Briensburg Baptist Church.

Charlie Clark Brasher Jr., known as C. C., was born on 8 December 1941 in Livingston County, Kentucky, to Charlie Clark Brasher Sr. and Nellie Brown Brasher. He was one of nine children, and his family later joked that at six foot four he was the shortest of the brothers.

He attended Livingston Central High School, graduating in 1959. He was one of the starting five on the school's boys' basketball team that played in the Kentucky state tournament, alongside Don Ringstaff, Lee Jones, Pat Allen Cooper and Edward Ramer. Friends said that anyone who spent time talking with him soon heard about that tournament, because he loved to talk about it. His older brother David also became a Baptist minister in western Kentucky.

Brasher surrendered to preach the gospel at Friendship Baptist Church in Livingston County in 1961. His first pastorate was at Carmack Baptist Church in the Between the Rivers area. On his first Sunday as pastor the church building caught fire, so the congregation rolled the piano outside and held the service while the building burned.

He went on to pastor Bethlehem Baptist Church, Altona Baptist Church, New Zion Baptist Church and Elm Grove Baptist Church before leading Briensburg Baptist Church in Benton for 31 years. He then became pastor of Oak Level Baptist Church in Benton, where he remained a member. In 2022 Kentucky Today reported that he had recently marked 60 years in ministry and that his small Oak Level congregation had given generously to tornado relief.

He held a string of denominational roles. He served two terms on the Foundation Board of the Kentucky Baptist Convention, was elected First Vice President of the KBC and President of the KBC Pastors' Conference, and served eight years on the Executive Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. He was also on the Board of Directors of Mid Continent Baptist Bible College, which awarded him an honorary Doctorate of Divinity. His love of missions took him on trips abroad, most often to Trinidad in the West Indies, and also to Brazil, Russia and Africa.

Brasher was married for 62 years to June Aldridge Brasher of Benton. They had a son, Brett, and a daughter, Tiffinee, and four grandchildren. He was survived by a brother and a sister and was predeceased by three brothers, three sisters and a great grandson. His family wrote that he was most proud of his family and that his greatest times in life were spent in ministry with the people he served.

Brasher is remembered as one of the best known Baptist pastors in the Jackson Purchase and Lakes region of western Kentucky, with a ministry of more than 60 years and three decades at a single church. Through his roles in the Kentucky Baptist Convention and on the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Board he also had a voice in the wider denomination, and through his overseas mission trips, especially to Trinidad, he took part in evangelism far beyond Kentucky.