Rev. Dr. Marion O. Ballard, 104

MARION O. Ballard loved to hear children at play.

"I want to live where I can hear children's voices," he once said.

And in his some 50 years as a pastor in the United Methodist denomination, he always took special care of the children in his congregations.

The Rev. Dr. Marion Ballard, who pastored numerous churches in Philadelphia, Delaware and Maryland, a man who enjoyed spending time in his book-crammed home library and fishing the Atlantic off South Jersey, died Wednesday. He was 104.

He lived in Simpson House on Belmont Avenue in recent years, but had lived for 30 years in Wynnefield.

At Simpson House, he loved to sit outdoors in the sunshine and commune with nature and with God. He attributed his long life to putting Jesus first, said his "adopted" son, the Rev. Frank Tyson.

Actually, Tyson was not legally adopted. "We sort of adopted each other," he said.

Ballard and his wife, Clara Adams, were married for 69 years. She died in 1997. They had no biological children but raised Marcella Miller Ward as their daughter.

Ballard was born in Deal Island, Md., the last of the 11 children of James and Harriett Ballard. He came to Philadelphia in 1923. After working a number of jobs, he attended Gammon Theological Seminary in Atlanta and graduated with a bachelor of divinity degree in 1935.

He went on to Central State University in Xenia, Ohio, and earned a bachelor of theology degree in 1935. He received a doctor of divinity degree in 1971 after studying at Albright College and Grambling State University.

His first ministerial appointments were in Delaware and Maryland, but in 1945, he was assigned to Zoar United Methodist Church at 12th and Melon streets, the former Mother African Zoar Church, started in 1792.

In 1953, he became superintendent of the United Methodist Church's Dover District, in Delaware, where he supervised more than 50 churches.

His sermon, "The Venture of Faith," at the conclusion of the Delaware UM Conference in 1965, was broadcast on WCAU.

After six years, he returned to Philadelphia in 1959 and became pastor of Camphor United Methodist Church at 56th Street and Wyalusing Avenue.

In 1965, he became pastor of Tindley Temple United Methodist, Broad and Fitzwater streets, where he remained until 1976, when he reached retirement age.

However, he continued as pastor of smaller churches, including Union Memorial in Darby and Mount Zion in North Philadelphia.

He was also in demand as a guest preacher at other churches in the area.

"He was a quiet, scholarly man," said Frank Tyson, associate pastor of Salem United Methodist Church in Jenkintown. "He had several thousand books in his library, from floor to ceiling. He was a serious preacher. He did his homework."

Ballard loved the water, Tyson said, having been born on an island, and he and some cronies would hire a boat to fish in the ocean.

Services: 7 p.m. tomorrow at Tindley Temple Church, Broad and Fitzwater streets. Friends may call at 5 p.m. Burial will be in Valley Forge Memorial Park. *