(CNN) – Mack Wolford, one of the most famous
Pentecostal serpent handlers in Appalachia, was laid to rest Saturday at
a low-key service at his West Virginia church a week after succumbing
to a snake bite that made headlines across the nation.
Several dozen family, friends and members of Wolford's House of the
Lord Jesus church in tiny Matoaka filled the simple hall for the
service, which lasted slightly more than an hour. At the request of
pastor's widow, Fran Wolford, media were forbidden inside the building.
Wolford's own dad was a serpent handler who died from a snake bite in 1983.
Mack Wolford, who was 44, was bitten by his yellow timber
rattlesnake at an evangelistic event in a state park about 80 miles west
of Bluefield, in West Virginia’s isolated southern tip.
He enjoyed handling snakes during worship services, but it’s a
tradition that has killed about 100 practitioners since it started in
the east Tennessee hills in 1909.
In recent years, Wolford feared the tradition was in danger of dying
for lack of interest among people in their 20s and 30s. It’s why he
drove to small, out-of-the-way churches around Appalachia to encourage
those who handle snakes to keep the tradition alive.
“I promised the Lord I’d do everything in my power to keep the faith
going,” Wolford said last fall in an interview I conducted with him for
the Washington Post Sunday magazine. “I spend a lot of time going a lot
of places that handle serpents to keep them motivated. I’m trying to get
anybody I can get.” Continue at CNN
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