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Pastor Married Nearly 50 Years, Perishes With Husband After Car Flips Over and Catches Fire

The late Rev. Beth Hodgson,77, and her husband, Willis Hodgson, 78.
The late Rev. Beth Hodgson,77, and her husband, Willis Hodgson, 78. | (Photo: Screen Grab via Fox4KS)

Members of a small Kansas church are now consoling each other after their pastor and her husband, whom she had been married to for almost 50 years, perished together in their car after it flipped over and caught fire along a local roadway Sunday.

The Miami County Sheriff's Office told Fox4KC that pastor of the Plum Creek United Methodist Church in Osawatomie, Rev. Beth Hodgson, 77, and her husband, Willis Hodgson, 78, died just a few miles away from their 50-member church along Plum Creek Road where their car caught fire after it overturned.

The Christian Post reached out to the church Wednesday morning for comment but no one was available. At the couple's home in Parker, their daughter, Jada Hodgson, said it was a difficult time to talk but said the members of the church "are just loving each other and us (family) and that's all there is at the moment."

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Friends and family gathered at the church Tuesday to recall the legacy left behind by the devout Christian couple.

"She was a very educated woman and always had a desire to educate people in the church," pastor Marti McDougal of First United Methodist Church in Osawatomie, told Fox4KC.

"Whenever you would see her it was always, 'how ya' doing?' in that sense of comfortableness with her, you always felt like you were with a friend when you were with Beth," she added.

Hodgson was also reportedly a strong, opinionated woman who doted on her grandchildren.

Church member and friend, David Wilson, said even though it was painful that they died, he felt good that they died together.

"He just spared them the pain and loneliness of maybe being separated, being in a nursing home, spared the family that; plus they were always inseparable, and so he took them together," said Wilson.

And their daughter, Jada, agreed. "They were partners in life and it would have been disappointing for either one to be left behind. And for them to leave together, neither one had to grieve their life partner, their very best friend."

Along with Jada, the couple also leaves behind their son, Wayne. They are expected to be buried on Friday.

Contact: leonardo.blair@christianpost.com Follow Leonardo Blair on Twitter: @leoblair Follow Leonardo Blair on Facebook: LeoBlairChristianPost

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