Former car dealer & preacher Ken Kitchen passes away Sunday

Kenneth Wayne Kitchen, Sr. of Henderson passed away Sunday, June 7, 2020 at Jackson-Madison County General Hospital. Funeral services were 1 p.m. Wednesday, June 10, at A New Beginning Church with Charlie Crouthers, Ronnie Geary, Chris Kitchen and Ken Kitchen, Jr. officiating. Burial followed in Roby Cemetery.
He was born Jan. 22, 1952 in Henderson, the son of Wilma Sue McCollum Kitchen and the late Rev. Clarence Kitchen. He graduated from Chester County High School in 1970. He married Wanda Jean Hodge in 1979, and they made their home in Henderson. He had been in the car business all of his life, having worked as an automobile adjuster and appraiser and owned and operated Kitchen’s Used Cars on the bypass and later South Church Street.
They founded Bolivar United Pentecostal Church in Bolivar, a home Mission Church and also pastored at Beech Bluff and Pleasant Ridge Full Gospel Church. He had worked with his father at Faith Assembly in South Jackson.
They started A New Beginning Church at the Auto Dealership on South Church before building the current church located on Sol Colston Road where he had pastored the past 22 years. They had their note burning on the building and property in Oct. 2019. He had also done revivals and evangelistic work in Mississippi and Tennessee.  
He is survived by his wife, Wanda Jean Hodge Kitchen of Henderson; his mother, Wilma Sue McCollum Kitchen of Henderson; two sons, Chris Kitchen and Ken Kitchen, Jr., both of Henderson; two daughters, Shonda Leigh Davis of Henderson and Stacy Leigh Brown of Ramer; six grandchildren, Tyler Kitchen, Leah Kitchen, Cabe Davis, Zowie Davis, Ken Kitchen, III and Christian Kitchen; two great-grandchildren, Eva and Mallory Kitchen; two brothers, Paul Kitchen of Dickson and Jonathan Kitchen of Henderson; and a sister, Janice Sue Plunk of Henderson.        
He was preceded in death by his father and twin sons, Matthew and Mark Kitchen in 1973.