January 12, 2000

James Basden dies in San Angelo
___By Orville Scott
___Texas Baptist Communications
___SAN ANGELO--James Basden, first director of the Texas Baptist Human Welfare Coordinating Board, died Dec. 29 in a San Angelo hospital of an apparent massive heart attack following gall bladder surgery. He was 84.
___As Human Wefare Coordinating Board director from 1960 through 1981, Basden was liaison between the Baptist General Convention of Texas and the Baptist child care homes,

JAMES BASDEN

hospitals and homes for the aging. Previously he was pastor of First Baptist churches of Brownwood, Belton and Ector, all in Texas, and First Baptist Church of Germantown, Tenn.
___Born in Memphis, Tenn., he earned a bachelor's degree from Union University and master of theology and doctor of theology degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
___His wife, Evelyn, preceded him in death last July at Baptist Memorials Center in San Angelo, where they had moved after his retirement from the BGCT.
___He taught the Caleb Sunday School class at First Baptist Church of San Angelo.?
___Basden is survived by his two sons: Jeter Basden, associate professor of religion at Baylor University in Waco, and Col. Bill Basden, a dentist at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia; his sister, Ruby Bragg of Jackson, Miss.; and his brother, Merle Basden of Fort Worth, executive director of the Southern Baptist Religious Education Association and former associate director of missions for Tarrant Baptist Association.
___At memorial services Jan. 1 in the chapel of Baptist Memorials Center, Basden's brother-in-law, Ernest Duncan, former pastor of Fairview Baptist Church in Grand Prairie, said Basden "was a cheerleader in college, and he remained a cheerleader all of his life for his Lord, for churches where he was pastor, for the convention and its institutions, for the association and for Baptist Memorials Center where he had lived in recent years."
___Alton Pearson, former president of Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center in Waco, said Basden's "gentlemanly ways and knowledge of Baptist polity enabled him to lead committees to work together most effectively. But he wasn't so heavenly minded that he wasn't of any earthly use."
___Charles Wright of Alpine, former administrator of Texas Baptist Children's Home in Round Rock, said Basden's "capacity to be a friend to every one he met evolved from his conviction that the one priority is Jesus' commandment to 'love the Lord with all your heart, soul and mind and your neighbor as yourself.'"
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