Aug. 6, 2009 | By Paul F. South

NEW ORLEANS – Retia Dukes was remembered Aug. 5 as ”a bright light, a gentle soul and a servant of the Lord” at a memorial service on the campus of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.

Dukes, the wife of longtime NOBTS Professor Jimmy Dukes, died Aug. 3 in New Orleans, after a four-month battle with injuries suffered in an April 4 traffic accident. She was 68.

In what NOBTS President Chuck Kelley called a “celebration” of her life, Retia Dukes was remembered in words and images. Hers was a life, speakers said, lived from a heavenly perspective.

In a poem titled, “Retia Dukes,” Clay Corvin, vice president for business affairs at NOBTS, remembered Dukes as a friend and one who served in many roles at NOBTS. He also remembered her as one committed to Jesus Christ.

Retia was always quiet/Yet she had a core strength/Grounded in Jesus Christ/Acted out daily/ By the things that she said and did, Corvin wrote.

He closed with these words, fighting tears as he read:

Now in the presence of Jesus/Her reward huge/ All of heaven welcomed her

She knew Jesus/ He greeted her and walked her to her home.

Preaching from Psalm 1, Kelley compared Retia Dukes and her family to the tree planted firmly by the waters of faith in Christ. Kelley and his wife, Rhonda, were the Dukes’ next-door neighbors for 13 years on the seminary campus.

“You just look at this family and see this fruitfulness; everything they do works. Everything they do touches people and brings results and has a great impact,” Kelley said. “And you understand, as you get to know this family, that the core of it all is Retia Dukes. Mom, wife, encourager, always there, always present, always loving, always praying always helping, always facilitating, always supporting one of the most fruitful families that I’ve ever known.”

Kelley remembered Retia Dukes, as “a wonderful, tender, powerful force of love.” And along with fruitfulness, the Retia Dukes and her family lived out grace and love, with Christ as the foundation of it all.

“They sunk their roots in the soil of Jesus,” Kelley said. “. . .What a remarkable woman. What a remarkable family.”

Longtime friend and seminary Professor Ken Taylor recalled Retia Dukes joy for life, and joy in serving others. And he recalled when his wife Shelia ran out into the seminary cafeteria to share that Retia Dukes had emerged from a deep coma weeks after the accident.

“Retia said, ‘I love you,’” Shelia Taylor told the cafeteria lunch crowd.

“There was not a dry eye in the house,” Ken Taylor remembered. “The joy was overwhelming. At 4:20 on Monday her awakening was even more astonishing. And our joy for Retia ought to be more overwhelming . . .  Now she has heard her Savior face to face in His presence an ‘I love you’ that is for eternity.”

Speaking on the family’s behalf, Jason Dukes, co-pastor of Westpoint Fellowship Church in Windermere, Fla., expressed gratitude to those who had ministered to his mother and father following the accident. Dukes thanked the caregivers at the New Orleans hospital as well as the thousands who logged on and left notes of encouragement for her and the family. The Dukes Caring Bridge site received almost 89,000 visits and more than 2,500 notes of encouragement.

“Let this be a thank-you note,” he said. “Let it be a chance to say to so many of you, thank you for what you’ve done.”

Dukes talked about the ways the family’s life has changed since the April 4 accident, and the impact of so many who reached out following the accident.

“Ever since that day, you guys have been walking with us, praying for us and doing things that we wouldn’t even have the time to name today. But your prayers and support and the ways that you’ve walked with us, we will never forget.”

A second memorial service for Retia Dukes will be held Aug. 18, at First Baptist Church Sweetwater in Longwood, Fla. The service is scheduled for 3 p.m.; visitation with the Dukes family will begin at 1:30 p.m.

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In lieu of flowers, the family requests contributions be made to the Jimmy and Retia Dukes Recovery Fund c/o NOBTS, 3939 Gentilly Boulevard, New Orleans, La., 70126.