Fred B. Hill

Fred B. Hill, 89, of Lancaster, Ohio, passed away peacefully at his home on July 29, 2026.

In his own words:

“I was the second child born to Henry Layten Hill and Delta Vivian (Mayfield) Hill. Dad and Mom had met as students at Eastern Teachers college in Richmond, Kentucky. I was born in a house on a wooded hillside sloping down to the Laura River about 7 miles west of Corbin, Kentucky on October 4, 1936.”

The family moved to Dayton, OH when Fred was young and Fred liked to recount the jobs he had as a boy growing up in Kentucky and Dayton: picking tobacco worms off tobacco plants, stacking sugar cane, bagging groceries, working at a caramel apple shop: skewering the apples on a stick and dipping them in hot caramel, delivering papers, selling concessions at the Dayton Indians ball park, and setting pins in a bowling alley.

When Fred was 17, at a revival service in Dayton, OH he surrendered his life to Christ and felt God calling him into the ministry. He attended Cumberland College in Williamsburg, KY, and later Georgetown College, where he met his future wife, Annalu Boatwright. Fred went on to earn a Master of Theology degree from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, preparing for a lifetime of Christian ministry.

Starting at the age of 18, Fred pastored several churches in Kentucky and Ohio, including Long Run Baptist Church, New Carlisle Baptist Church, Highland Baptist Church, Englewood Baptist Church, First Southern Baptist Church of Pomeroy, and Oak Grove Baptist Church. He was also a Director of Missions in the Southern Baptist Convention for 20 years in Wisconsin and Ohio.

An avid gardener, he enjoyed growing organic vegetables and sharing them with neighbors, members of his church, bank employees, and anyone else who happened his way. He loved pitching horseshoes and walking at Rising Park. He learned to play ping pong when he was in college and was still playing, and playing quite well, up until the week before he passed away.

Fred is survived by his sons, Richard Hill (Melissa) of Nashville, Tennessee, and Rodney Hill of Seattle, Washington; his grandchildren, Ben Hill (Katie) and Lydia Eagle (Adam), both of Nashville; and one great-grandson, Peter Eagle.

He was preceded in death by his wife, Annalu Boatwright Hill; his parents, Henry and Delta Hill; his brother, Norman Hill; his sisters, Naomi Schubert and Franya Mayfield Hill, and his daughter, Jé French.

Caring Cremation® is being handled through the Frank E. Smith Funeral Home.

To send an online condolence, and sign the guest book, please visit www.funeralhome.com.