Rev. Gene L. Loftis, 82

Rev. Gene L. Loftis, 82, of Omaha, died Saturday, September 15, 2012, at the Methodist Hospital in Omaha.

Services are 10 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 19, at Trinity United Methodist Church, 80th and Q Streets, in Ralston. Visitation begins at 4 p.m. Tuesday with family receiving friends from 6 to 7 p.m. at the Bethany Funeral Home Chapel, 8201 Harrison St. in LaVista. Interment will be in Cedar Dale Cemetery in Papillion.

Gene L. Loftis was born Jan. 9, 1930, in rural Washington County to Floyd and Florence (Johns) Loftis.

He graduated from Fremont High School.

Rev. Loftis was a retired pastor of Ralston United Church of Christ and St. Paul’s United Church of Christ of Plattsmouth.

He is survived by his wife, Val; children and their spouses, Michael and Julie Loftis, Heidi and Randy Sell, Dale and Sachiko Buscher, Christine and Charles Bilyeu;numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren; and sisters and brother-in-law, Shirley and LaVerne Schmidt of Blair and Iva Johnson.

He was preceded in death by a son, Jay Loftis; infant sister, Clairbel; brother, Marlon Loftis; and sister, Janice Trotter.

Memorials are suggested to the Celiac Sprue Association or Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

World Herald 17

Loftis, Rev. Gene L. Age 82 Sep 15, 2012

Omaha. Retired Pastor of Ralston United Church of Christ and St. Paul’s United Church of Christ, Plattsmouth, NE. Preceded in death by son, Jay Loftis; parents, Floyd and Florence Loftis; Infant sister, Clairbel; brother, Marion Loftis; sister, Janice Trotter. Survived by wife, Val; children, Michael (Julie) Loftis; Heidi (Randy) Sell; Dale (Sachiko) Buscher; Christine (Charles) Bilyeu; numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren; sisters, Shirley (LaVerne) Schmidt and Iva Johnson.

VISITATION Tuesday after 4 pm with family receiving friends from 6-7 pm at Bethany Funeral Home Chapel. FUNERAL Wednesday 10 am at Trinity United Methodist Church (80th and Q, Ralston). Interment Cedar Dale Cemetery. Memorials requested to Celiac Sprue Association or Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

BETHANY FUNERAL HOME 82nd & Harrison 402-593-6100

Omaha World Herald by Adam Klinker 20 Sept 2012

Rev. Eugene Loftis Remembered at Funeral in Song – His Own

Music at the Rev. Eugene L. Loftis’ funeral Wednesday morning was provided by the Rev. Eugene L. Loftis.

The former pastor of the Ralston United Church of Christ died Saturday from complications following a stroke. He was 82.

The congregation Loftis served for nearly 20 years remembered him as a tuneful personality, so much so that two songs at the funeral service were recordings of Loftis’ vocal and guitar renditions of two of his favorite spirituals, “Peace in the Valley” and “My Special Friend”.

“His best sermons were his songs”, said Barbara Quandahl, a Ralston UCC member. “He’d get up there every month and sing to us, with his own guitar accompaniment, and those were the lessons you’d really remember”.

Loftis also performed in clubs and bars around the Omaha and Council Bluffs area.

For a time, he tried to make his name as a country and western musician in Chicago.

“I guess Chicago was not that impressed with him”, said Lindy McIntyre, who was secretary of the Ralston UCC during Loftis’ years at the church. “But that just meant he went to better use with us as our pastor”.

Ordained in 1956, Loftis left the ministry in the 1970s and worked with the Eastern Nebraska Community Office of Retardation, sold insurance and served as chaplain in area hospitals.

In 1982, he was working as a visiting pastor when he landed at the church in Ralston, which was looking for a pastor.

Paul Schoomaker, who was heading the search team, said there was an almost instant rapport between Loftis and the Ralston congregation.

Loftis was born near Herman, Neb., where his father ran a café and where, Loftis always said, it was easy to find out what kind of day you’d had by how much money was in the cash register.

When Loftis left the ministry, Schoomaker said, he was looking for some way to measure his effectiveness as a pastor.

“He had left the ministry because he said he couldn’t feel like he was making a difference”, Schoomaker said.

“Being a pastor is a very complex existence, and he said he never had a way of measuring whether he was getting through to people. You can count the people in the pews, the offering, who is volunteering, but it wouldn’t really ad up”, he said. “When he came back to us, though he said he was so warmly received and moved by what he saw and he got back into it”.

After retiring from Ralston UCC in 2000, the state conference of the United Church of Christ tapped Loftis to minister to UCC pastors in western Nebraska.

“He was making such a difference that he had to keep going”, Schoomaker said.

After four years, he began working as a visiting pastor again. He eventually became pastor at St. Paul United Church of Christ in Plattsmouth, finally retired in 2010.

“I think he could never get away from it”, said Loftis’ wife of 37 years, Val. “He loved his God, he loved people and he was very open about it. People were drawn to him, and he was drawn to them”.