Howington Family

Arthur Fletcher Howington, Jr., B.A., B.Div., M.Div., was born August 21, 1915, in Eclectic, Alabama, the second child of Methodist circuit minister A.F. Howington and his wife Cora Kelly. He had one older sister, Maybeth, and two younger siblings, Nelle and Hartwell (Riley). He graduated from Elmore County High School in 1934. He received a B.A. from Birmingham-Southern College in 1939. He earned a Bachelor of Divinity and a Master of Divinity degree in 1972 from the Candler School of Theology of Emory University.

Fletcher Howington began his ministry with the Alabama-West Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church in 1936 as a student pastor at Birmingham-Southern College. Howington took over his father's preaching circuit in Beatrice, Alabama, upon his death in 1938. He also served in Titus, Alabama, and Dallas, Georgia, during this time.

In December 1939, Howington married Laura Jean Griffith of Eclectic, Alabama. They had two children, Arthur Fletcher, III, and Lee Riley.

Howington served churches in Pineapple, Selma, York, Monroeville, Mobile, Wetumpka, Tallassee, Geneva, and Montgomery, Alabama. From 1972-1974, he served as Troy District Superintendent. He became Executive Director of the Blue Lake Assembly in 1974, serving until his retirement in 1986. During his retirement, he served as pastor of Watson's Chapel Church in Elmore County.

Howington dealt with a variety of contemporary and political issues among his congregation, including war, morality, McCarthyism, and racism. He was a staunch supporter of Thomas Lane Butts during the first Methodist church trial in the past century; Butts was later acquitted of all charges.

Fletcher died in Eclectic, Alabama, on August 26, 1999. Jean Howington died in 2005.

From the guide to the Fletcher and Jean Howington Family papers MSS. 1627., Bulk, 1938-1978, 1826-1999, (W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library, The University of Alabama)