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Memorial Set For Bell Shoals Baptist Minister

Tribune file photo by JIM REED

In May, Bell Shoals Baptist Church Pastor Simeon Nix, center, had to help George Thomasson, left, and Gary Payne announce that searchers found the bodies of Pastor Forrest Pollock and his 13 year-old after a plane crash. Now the congregation must deal with Nix's loss as well.

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By MICHELLE BEARDEN

The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 19, 2008

A "celebration of life" service for the Rev. Simeon Nix will take place Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Bell Shoals Baptist Church, 2101 Bell Shoals Road, Brandon. Doors will open at 5 p.m.

Nix, the church's pastor of music and worship, died early Sunday morning from a heart attack. He was 47.

It was the second time in three months the Brandon congregation, one of the Bay area's largest with about 7,000 members, lost a leader. In May, senior pastor Forrest Pollock and his 14-year-old son died when the single-engine Piper that Pollock was piloting crashed into a North Carolina mountainside. The accident remains under investigation by the Federal Aviation Administration.

Nix, known as a gregarious and compassionate minister, is survived by his wife, Beth, and the two 7-year-old children they adopted from Russia.

Staff and church members said Nix played an integral role in helping them through the grieving and healing process after Pollock's death.

The family requests that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Bell Shoals Baptist Church Greater Glory Building Fund. The congregation moved in to its new $24 million, 3,450-seat sanctuary just a few weeks before Pollock's plane crash.

Notes of encouragement may be e-mailed to nixfamily@bellshoals.com.

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