Jack Sosby (Walter Jackson Sosby)

Rev. Jack Sosby (Walter Jackson Sosby) died early Thursday at Emory University Hospital in Decatur.

Rev. Sosby's service as a Southern Baptist minister spanned more than 50 years, most of them in North Georgia, including Harmony Hall Baptist Church in southeastern Hall County, Hillcrest in Habersham County, and Milltown and Rock Springs in Hart County.

At 82, he was still serving with the staff of Level Grove Baptist Church in Cornelia. In retirement he previously had done interim work as an associate pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Toccoa.

Funeral services will be held Saturday, Dec. 4, at 3 p.m. at Tom's Creek Baptist Church, Highway 145, Martin, in southern Stephens County, where he grew up and was ordained. Whitlock Morturary, Toccoa, in charge of arrangements.

He is survived by his wife of 64 years, Evelyn Whitworth Sosby; Cornelia and one daughter, Jackie Sosby of Gainesville (former district editor of The Times in Gainesville); two sisters, Ruth Culpepper and Joyce English, both of Toccoa; two grandsons, Jonathan Dan Sosby of Gainesville and William Blake Sosby of Dahlonega.