Obituary honors Jerry Lee Stansbury’s life of faith, teaching, service

Jerry Lee Stansbury’s life connected the classroom, the barn, the church and the fire department, leaving a local legacy that reached well beyond one family. He died at Baptist Health Hospital in Richmond on April 6, 2026, at 1 p.m., at age 84, and the obituary posted April 15 placed his story squarely in the small-county world of Owsley and Lee counties, where steady service and close ties still define community life.

Born July 21, 1941, in Portland, Indiana, Stansbury was the son of J.C. and Betty Eileen (Prouty) Stansbury. He grew up with sisters Diana Nichols and Linda Wentz, and the obituary emphasized how much he valued the wider family circle, including nieces, nephews and relatives in Indiana, Ohio and elsewhere. Family reunions mattered to him, a detail that fits a life built around gathering, remembering and staying connected across state lines.

Before he came to Kentucky, Stansbury spent 30 years teaching in elementary and middle schools in Indiana. That work placed him in front of generations of children, and the obituary said he never lost interest in children growing into responsible adults. He also served three years in the military, with basic training in California and service in Alaska, where he learned to use his time wisely. Later, he carried that discipline into the daily routines that defined him in Beattyville.

Stansbury and his wife, Karen Ruth Mays Stansbury, lived on Sipple Ridge in Beattyville for 25 and a half years. He liked hard work and kept close to the land, plowing the garden, helping with odd jobs and raising sheep for decades. Even in winter, he watched over ewes through long nights during lambing season until his health no longer allowed it. Faith remained central throughout, with church attendance, prayer and encouragement for younger people entering ministry. In later years, when he could not get out as often, he spent much of his time praying for Israel, the sick, neighbors and church families.

His service extended to the Bear Track Volunteer Fire Department, where he valued training and learning from fellow firefighters. That volunteer tradition matters in a county like Owsley, which had an estimated population of 3,932 in July 2025, and in nearby Beattyville, where the Bear Track department serves a small community with one station and 17 volunteers. At Heavenly Mission Church and Heavenly Missions on Bear Track Road, his life matched the kind of local faith and practical service that keep rural communities tied together.