FRANKFORT—A one mile stretch of Georgetown Road in Frankfort is being renamed for “Frankfort’s pastor,” Wallace Kent.

Kent was the pastor at Crestwood Baptist Church in Frankfort for 38 years, before “retiring” and becoming the pastor for pastoral care at Buck Run Baptist, also in Frankfort. Kent passed away in 2012.

“He ministered in Frankfort so faithfully for so many years. I think it astounding that even a secular culture recognizes that a man of God has been here and wanted to commemorate that,” Hershael York, pastor of Buck Run Baptist Church, said.

“To name that stretch of Georgetown Road in honor of Wallace Kent is both fitting and also an incredible testimony to the impact that a man of God can have on a community,” he said.

Kent was known for visiting people in the hospital and remembering details about their lives and their families lives.

“He was just kind. He truly was the kindest man I ever knew,” York added. “As a fellow pastor, he not only was not jealous of any other pastor, but he was cheering for you. He wanted you to succeed.”

Kent, a father of six and husband to Bettye Zoe, “never met a stranger, and if he did, he knew that stranger in about two minutes,” Ira Linville, deacon and member at Crestwood since 2000, said.

“He was not interested in administration; he was interested in taking care of people, both their physical and spiritual needs. That made him an ultimate choice for a pastor,” Linville added.

Referring to Kent as a “shepherd,” he said, “He just loved and cared for his people and they cared for him.”

The bill, championed by the Franklin Baptist Association, which Kent was active in, was brought to the State Senate by the chairman of the Senate transportation committee.

“It just seemed logical to see if we could get something done in the legislature to get a portion of the road named for Wallace Kent,” Tom Troth, pastor of Hillcrest Baptist Church in Frankfort and the Kentucky Baptist Convention’s lobbyist, said.

Troth continued, “Wallace was just a dearly beloved pastor here in Frankfort. He was just kind of everybody’s pastor.

“Everyone loved Wallace,” he said. “He was just a fine, godly man.” (WR)