Introduction

Biography

Rue was the son of Belle F. Por­ter, and hus­band of Nan­cy A. Tho­ma­son.

He preached his first ser­mon in 1911 near Har­ris­on, Ar­kan­sas, the be­gin­ning of a long ca­reer in at least 30 Am­eri­can states. He is said to have bap­tized about 10,000 peo­ple ov­er six de­cades, in­clud­ing his own fa­mi­ly.

Most of his preach­ing was in meet­ings, but he did some lo­cal work in Bris­tow, Ok­la­ho­ma (1919–28), and helped plant church­es through­out north­east Ok­la­ho­ma.

In 1931, Por­ter moved to Neo­sho, Mis­sou­ri, liv­ing there the rest of his life.

Porter was ac­tive in ra­dio broad­cast­ing, preach­ing on ov­er 50 sta­tions through­out Am­eri­ca.

He wrote a num­ber of books and tracts, ar­ti­cles for se­ver­al dif­fer­ent news­pa­pers, and ed­it­ed The Chris­tian Wor­ker of Wi­chi­ta, Kan­sas, for sev­er­al years, start­ing in Se­ptem­ber 1955.

Works

• Plain Truth (Wi­chi­ta, Kan­sas: Chris­tian Wor­ker Pub­lish­ing)
• The Ket­cher­side-Por­ter De­bate, with W. Carl Ket­cher­side (Ber­nard, Mis­sou­ri: Rush Print­ing, 1937)
• Musings: Gos­pel Ser­mons That Reach the Heart (Wi­chi­ta, Kan­sas: Chris­tian Wor­ker Pub­lish­ing, 1940)
• What is Man?, with C. H. Pal­mer, 1940–1965?
• Crowning Praise No. 2, with Will Slat­er (Hen­ry­et­ta, Ok­la­ho­ma: Will W. Slat­er, 1941)
• Jesus and Mo­rals and if a Man Die: Two Gos­pel Ser­mons, with W. B. An­drews (Dal­las, Tex­as: Oak Cliff Church of Christ, 1944)
• Words of Truth (Port­land, Ore­gon: Roc­ky Mount­ain Chris­tian, 1946)
• Favorite Songs of the Church No. 2, with Frank Gram­mer (Ful­ler­ton, Ca­li­for­nia: Church Mu­sic Com­pa­ny, 1948)
• Church Prais­es, with Al­bert Brum­ley & W. N. Bo­han­nan (Neo­sho, Mis­sou­ri: Church Mu­sic Com­pa­ny, 1952)
• I Re­mem­ber, 1952
• Singing His Prais­es (Neo­sho, Mis­sou­ri: Rue Por­ter, 1957)
• McCay-Por­ter De­bate on The Com­mun­ion Cup, with G. Earl Mc­Cay (De­ca­tur, Ala­ba­ma: Thrash­er Pub­li­ca­tions, 1998)