Rev. William Allen Cranford

Apostolic Ministers Fellowship

1910 ~ 1974

Reverend William Allen Cranford was born October 21, 1910, in a small community near Kinder, Louisiana. While still a young man, he received the gift of the Holy Ghost, and was baptized in the Name of Jesus in the First Pentecostal Church of Lake Charles, Louisiana. It was in this church that he served faithfully as a layman for more than nine years.

Brother Cranford began his preaching ministry as an evangelist in Southwest Louisiana. After a brief period of evangelism, he assumed the pastorate of a small church at Pitkin, Louisiana. Beginning in 1947, and in the four years that followed, a new church building was erected, and membership was greatly increased.

With the call and blessing of God, Brother Cranford went to the small town of Merryville, Louisiana, in 1951. Here winning the respect and confidence of the community, he again built a church building and founded a good group of worshippers in sound biblical doctrine.

In 1956, Brother Cranford felt a divine beckoning to build a work in Sulphur, Louisiana. Here with a rented building, he labored for thirteen fruitful years. A nice sanctuary was built, and numbers were added to the church, and the Word of God was preached in its fullness and power.

In May 1969, several good prayerful ministers ruched to the hospital bedside of Brother Cranford. He had suffered a stroke while working in the church building in Sulphur. God worked a miracle of healing, and only four months later he again went into pastoral work. This time the church was located in Franklin, Louisiana. Here for four years he was a kind and gentle shepherd to the membership. After searching for the will of God, Brother Cranford resigned from pastoral work and began a teaching ministry. He was engaged in this type of ministerial work at the time of his death. Brother William A. Cranford ended his natural life at 12:30 p.m., on January 16, 1974.