Rev. Earl Vaughan

Rev. Earl Vaughan, 95, a native of Clarksburg, Mo., died peacefully at Heritage Place assisted living facility in Fayetteville, N.C., on July 29, 2025.

He is survived by his sister, Ruby Hendley, of Iberia, Mo., and his son, Earl Vaughan Jr., of Fayetteville.

Vaughan grew up in a large farming family in his native Missouri near the town of California. As a boy he learned the value of hard work as he helped herd sheep and cattle. Vaughan came to North Carolina via the military, enlisting in the United States Army and serving two years from 1951-53 at Fort Bragg.

While there he met his future wife, Peggy Jean Blount, on a blind date. After his second attempt at proposing she said yes, and the two remained wed until her passing in 2008, 55 years.Initially the couple lived in Kansas City, Mo., but after Earl found his job unsatisfying he and Peggy moved back to Fayetteville where he got a job in the business office of Yarborough Motor Company. There he became acquainted with Ramon Yarborough, who later headed Fayetteville Publishing Company, which eventually hired Earl’s only child, Earl Vaughan Jr., to a nearly 40-year career as a sports writer.

While working at Yarborough Motor Company, Vaughan felt called to the ministry and moved his family to Decatur, Ga., where he attended Columbia Theological Seminary.After graduating in 1966, Vaughan returned to North Carolina where he served in a series of Presbyterian pastorates over 40 years. He started at Bryson City Presbyterian Church, then moved to the Cleveland and Third Creek Presbyterian Churches in Rowan County outside Salisbury.

Third Creek is the burial place of Peter Stuart Ney, who according to local legend was the famed Marshall Ney in the army of France’s Napoleon Bonaparte.Vaughan left Rowan County and moved to Woodburn Presbyterian Chuch in Leland outside Wilmington. His final full-time pastorate was at Warsaw Presbyterian Church in Duplin County.He was honorably retired by the Presbytery of Coastal Carolina in 1992 but his ministering days were far from over. He returned to Fayetteville and spent three years as a parish associate at First Presbyterian Church.

Over the next few years he was an interim pastor at a number of Fayetteville area churches, including Grove, Parkton, Hope Mills and Vaughn Memorial.In 2004 he completed a lifelong wish when he was invited to preach at historic Old Bluff Church in Cumberland County. He had previously preached at Longstreet and Barbecue churches. The three are among the area’s oldest Presbyterian churches.The late Catherine Traylor wrote a tribute to Vaughan that appeared in The Readers Write column published by the Fayetteville Observer on Feb. 17, 2007.

It contained a comment by her that many would agree is an excellent description of what made Vaughan special.“To me he is an unsung hero of simple folk, and I treasure his humble, caring and gracious attitude that I’ve come to know and love,’’ she said.

Funeral arrangements will be announced later.