MARTINSBURG, W.Va. — A staple of WEPM’s Sunday morning lineup has passed away.
Rev. Robert Lee White of Kearneysville was 94 when he passed away last Sunday, Oct. 26.
In February, he announced he was preaching his last sermons on his Way of Life broadcast after 58 years on the air.
He said the Lord led him to preach. “I had the desire to go on the radio. I thought that that’s what God was calling me for. And so I went to the station in Martinsburg. (WEPM founder Les) Golliday was there and I told him I would like to have a program. He put on paper when I went on,” at first on Saturdays for 15 minutes at a time. “So as I went on I just thanked the Lord for it.”
He talked about some of the responses he got to his radio broadcast.
“I got letters from people in Radio Land,” he said, which is how he referred to his radio audience. “People got healed through the broadcast. People got saved. And and one woman that was down to Baltimore Hospital God saved her. She come up to me said how can I lose weight? I said I don’t know I just prayed God would heal you,” he said. “I’ve experienced a lot of things that God has used me for.”
At the church he was in at the time, “We had a prayer meeting. The women would gather in one room and we would gather in the other,” he said.
“And so I told the women, I said when you pray, I said, pray for the broadcast, but don’t tell nobody.”
“Brother Bill was the pastor. One woman spoke up and said, ‘I feel that there’s a person here that’s called of the Lord to do work. And Wanda, the pastor’s wife, she spoke in tongues and and the pastor interpreted. He said, ‘This is for you. God has opened the doors and no man can close them.”
“So we’ve been on the air ever since 1966,” Pastor White said.
He was around 30 when he began preaching, having given his life to Christ in 1950.
“When I got saved, I came to the Lord. I confessed my sins. I said, ‘God have mercy,’ and God changed my life.
As to his call to the ministry, it started at a Methodist church in Bardane.
“It was closed. And I asked the woman, I said, ‘Is it all right if I go into the church and pray?’ And she said, yes. So I went in church and I opened up the windows and I, I went in there to sing, to pray and, and to read the word of God,” White remembered.
“When I’d sung and everything and I got down, I began to pray,” he said. “I sang, I read the Bible,” he said. “One night God spoke to me and said, ‘Stand up and preach.’ And I, I didn’t know. I just stood up there and opened the Bible and started preaching,” Reverend White said.
“And so when I left the church that night, I prayed. I said, ‘God, are you calling me to preach? Send somebody here tomorrow night to prove to me.’”
“And the next night, two women come in and asked me to sing to them and asked me to preach to them and so I just started preaching.”
Those of us who worked at WEPM will remember Reverend White, referred to as “Pastor White” at the station, coming in faithfully to prerecord his broadcasts, carefully selecting music from his own collection of gospel music to intersperse into his messages.
Frequently, he would call out listeners by name and mention their prayer requests.
In addition to his radio broadcasts, Reverend White had a nursing home ministry.
He is survived by his wife of 67 years and four daughters as well as extended family including 12 grand children, 25 great-grandchildren, and one great-great grandchild.
Services will be held Friday morning at 11 a.m. at the Inwood Family Worship Center, according to his obituary:
Reverend Robert Lee White, 94, of Kearneysville, passed away Sunday, October 26, 2025, at Berkeley Medical Center.
Born January 29, 1931 in Jefferson Co., he was the son of the late Robert and Nannie White. He retired from Jefferson Co. Schools.
Robert was a member of the Inwood Family Worship Center for 25 years. He was a pastor and radio minister for over 58 years. He could be heard on the air waves of WEPM in Martinsburg during his “Way of Life Broadcast”. He also ministered to local nursing homes.
He is survived by his wife of 67 years, Brenda White; daughters, Margaret Triggs, Connie Jenkins, Reba White, and Roberta Payton (Curtis); 12 grandchildren; 25 great grandchildren; one great great grandchild; and sisters, Ethel Breeden and Ruth Farmer.
In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by two brothers; three sisters; two sons-in-law; and five grandchildren.
Services will be held Friday, October 31, 2025 at 11AM at the Inwood Family Worship Center with Brothers David Palmer and Jack Payne officiating. Family will receive friends one hour prior to the service.
Interment will be in Pleasant View Memory Gardens.
Hear Pastor White’s final interview at the end of Tuesday’s episode of Panhandle Live.