Reverend Timothy L. Strange, Jr. | Memorial Tribute

HIS LOVE STORY & FAMILY

Among the most important chapters of Reverend Strange’s life was the one he shared with First Lady Ella Dee Strange, the woman who would become his wife and remain by his side for more than seven decades. They were united in marriage on June 29, 1952, beginning a union that would endure for an extraordinary 73 years. Long before they became Reverend Timothy L. Strange, Jr. and First Lady Ella Dee Strange, they were a young husband and wife building a life together, growing together, raising a family, weathering life’s changes, and remaining joined through more than seven decades of marriage.

Together, Reverend Strange and First Lady Strange became the parents of Michael Strange, Derrick Strange, Sandra Strange, Ronnie Strange, Marilyn Strange, and Chauncey Strange.

Their marriage would span Louisiana beginnings, a major move across the country, the raising of their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, years of work and entrepreneurship, and eventually decades of ministry. What began between two young people in 1952 grew into a family legacy extending through generations.

BUILDING A LIFE IN CALIFORNIA

Around 1954, at approximately 23 years old, Reverend Strange left Mooringsport, Louisiana, and made his way west to Los Angeles, California. He came not as the pastor people would later know, but as a young husband and father prepared to work and provide for his family.

He found employment with Consolidated Western Steel, where he became part of the industrial workforce of Los Angeles. He also worked as a truck driver and demonstrated an entrepreneurial spirit through the operation of his own janitorial service.

These were not incidental years before ministry. They were part of the making of the man.

He knew what it meant to work with his hands, to earn a living, to provide for a household, to take responsibility for others, and to build something of his own. The discipline and order that later characterized his ministry were evident in the way he approached life itself.

During his adult years, Reverend Strange also became a Freemason, another part of the broad life he lived outside of the church.

Long before people knew Reverend Strange from the pulpit, there was a working man building something.

He came West prepared to work, and work he did. Yet the life Reverend Strange was building would ultimately extend far beyond earning a living and providing for his household. There was another responsibility awaiting him—one that would require not merely his hands, but his life.

THE CALL TO MINISTRY

In 1976, Reverend Timothy L. Strange, Jr. answered the call to pastor.

For him, ministry was never something casual.

He took God seriously.

He took the pulpit seriously.

And he understood that being entrusted with the spiritual care of others was not merely a position
to hold, but a sacred responsibility to carry.

Reverend Strange was a man of order and discipline, and those qualities became
inseparable from the way he approached ministry. He did not treat the things of God
lightly. The pulpit was not a stage, ministry was not a performance, and his calling
was not something he used simply to acquire recognition.

He did not play with God.

He believed what he preached, respected the office he had been called to occupy, and sought to conduct himself accordingly.

His commitment to ministry also led him to continue his theological education, eventually earning a Doctor of Ministry degree. Yet the accomplishment did not redefine how he presented himself to those around him. He was not a man consumed with titles or the need to announce his accomplishments. To his family, his congregation, and the people who knew him, he remained simply and respectfully Reverend Timothy L. Strange, Jr.

His ministry would become an enduring part of his life’s work, but the man standing behind the pulpit was every bit as important as the title that came before his name.

THE MAN BEYOND THE PULPIT

Those who knew Reverend Strange knew a man who did not waste words.

He could be quiet. He could be serious. He believed in order. And when something mattered—particularly when it concerned God—he was not a man who played about it.

But seriousness should never be mistaken for an absence of joy. Reverend Strange had a wonderful sense of humor. He laughed. He enjoyed laughter. There was warmth behind the discipline and personality behind the quietness.

He simply did not have to dominate a room to have a presence in it. When Reverend Strange spoke, his words carried weight. He was a man who could say little and still say much because his words had meaning. Those closest to him understood that when he chose to speak, there was usually a reason to listen.

That combination—his seriousness and his humor, his discipline and his warmth, his quietness and his authority—made him distinctly himself.

He was more than the Reverend people saw in the pulpit. He was a

husband, a father, a grandfather, a great-grandfather, a brother, an uncle, a working man, a businessman, a Freemason, and a man who had traveled a remarkable distance from his Mooringsport, Louisiana beginnings.

And ultimately, the greatest evidence of his life would not be found in a title at all.

It would be found in what remained after him.

A LEGACY OF 73 YEARS

Perhaps no earthly relationship tells the story of Reverend Strange’s life more powerfully than the one he shared with his beloved wife, First Lady Ella Dee Strange.

They began their marriage in 1952 as a young couple with a future still
unwritten.

They could not have known then all that those years would contain—the move from Louisiana to California, children, careers, entrepreneurship, ministry, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, losses, celebrations, changing generations, and eventually old age.

Yet they traveled that road together for 73 years. First Lady Strange’s passing on August 18, 2025, brought an earthly separation after more than seven decades of marriage.

Remarkably, exactly one year later, on August 18, 2026, Reverend Timothy L. Strange, Jr. completed his own earthly journey.

The date that marked his beloved wife’s departure from this life became, one year later, the date of his own.

For a husband and wife whose lives had been intertwined for
more than seven decades, even the dates upon which their
earthly journeys ended became forever connected.

HIS LEGACY

Reverend Timothy L. Strange, Jr. lived 95 years, and the measure of those
years cannot be contained between two dates.

His life stretched from Louisiana to California, from steel work and truck driving to entrepreneurship, from husband and father to pastor, and from one generation of the Strange family into several more.

His life cannot be measured by a single occupation, title, accomplishment,
or season.

It is measured in the family he helped build.

In the wife he loved for more than seven decades.

In the children he raised.

In the generations that followed him.

In the work of his hands.

In the ministry he took seriously.

In the laughter his family remembers.

In the wisdom contained within the words he chose to speak.

And in a faith that was not something he treated casually, but something he regarded as sacred.

THOSE WHO WENT BEFORE HIM

Reverend Strange was preceded in death by his beloved wife of 73 years, First Lady Ella Dee Strange; his children Michael Strange, Derrick Strange, and Sandra Strange; his granddaughter Yalanda R. Strange; and his siblings David Strange, Gloria Johnson, Willie Strange, Katie Sutton, and John Strange, along with other beloved family members who completed their earthly journeys before him.

THOSE WHO CARRY HIS LEGACY

Reverend Strange leaves to cherish his memory his children, Ronnie Strange, Marilyn Strange, and Chauncey Strange; his surviving siblings, Mary Ashley, Bessie Powell, and Joseph Michael; and a treasured legacy of grandchildren and great-grandchildren, along with numerous nieces, nephews, extended family members, church family, spiritual sons and daughters, and countless others whose lives were touched by his presence and ministry.

They are the living continuation of a story that began nearly a
century ago in Mooringsport, Louisiana.

Yet a legacy such as his is larger than a list of names.

It lives in the family that carries his blood.

It lives in the generations that came from the marriage he and First Lady Strange began in 1952.

It lives in the people who remember his voice, his humor, his
discipline, his presence, and those moments when a man of few
words chose to speak.

It lives in the people he pastored, the lessons he taught, the example he set, and the faith he took so seriously.

Reverend Timothy L. Strange, Jr. did not simply live a long life. He lived a life that left something behind.

And after 95 years, his earthly work has ended—but the legacy of the husband, father, grandfather, brother, pastor, and man he was continues in every life that bears the imprint of his own.

His family remains.

His teachings remain.

His words remain.

His example remains.

His legacy remains.

And for a man who believed the things of God were to be taken seriously, perhaps there are no words more fitting with which to close his earthly story than those already chosen to honor him:

“Well done, good and faithful servant.”
Matthew 25:21