A week after their lives were cut short by a deranged gunman who entered Richmond Road Baptist Church in Lexington last Sunday, the wife and daughter of the church’s pastor will be laid to rest after a joint funeral service at the church on Saturday.
The announcement came in obituaries for Beverly Gumm, 72, and her 32-year-old daughter, Christina Combs. One family member urged supporters to honor the women’s lives by also attending church on Sunday.
“To everyone who keeps asking if I need anything, I would deeply appreciate it if you would come to Sunday morning service this Sunday at Richmond Rd Baptist Church. I would love to have the place full to honor my mother and sister,” Star Jones wrote in a post on Facebook Thursday. “I know they would be happy to have any and everyone in church this Sunday morning.”
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Gumm, who had eight children, was remembered in her obituary as a devoted wife and mother who was full of faith.
“She was the heart of her home, the glue that held her family together, raising eight children with grace, strength, and a nurturing spirit. Her love extended beyond her family as she faithfully served alongside her church family, where she was known for her kindness, hospitality, and servant’s heart. Beverly started multiple family church programs that will go on in her honor,” he family said. “Her marriage to Jerry Gumm was a testimony of enduring love, partnership, and faith. Together, they built a home where Christ was honored, and family was treasured.”
The joint funeral service for the mother and daughter is expected to start at 2 p.m. on Saturday, while their burials will follow at the Pilot Knob Cemetery in Berea. A visitation period will run from 12 to 2 p.m.
Combs and her mother were fatally shot after 47-year-old Guy House, also deceased, went on a shooting rampage at the church after he shot and injured a Kentucky State Police trooper at the Blue Grass Airport, Lex 18 reported.
The late nursing student’s sisters, Star [Jones] Rutherford, Dasey “Patches” Rutherford and Rachel Barnes, told the Lexington Herald Leader that Gumm and Star were cooking lunch in the church’s fellowship hall last Sunday afternoon when a man, now identified as House, came through the back door and asked for another one of their sisters.
“’I just want to speak to Angel,’ that’s our sister. My mother said Angel is not here. He said, ‘well I guess someone is gonna have to die then.’ And shot twice at her. The first time, she ducked and [he] missed. Second time [his bullet] hit her in the chest,” Star Rutherford told WKYT.
House later went outside the church, where he fatally shot Combs. He also shot Gumm’s husband and longtime pastor of the church, Jerry Gumm, and Combs’ husband, Randy Combs. Both men were reportedly in critical but stable condition.
“Beverly leaves behind a legacy of faith, compassion, and perseverance. She touched countless lives through her prayers, gentle wisdom, and unconditional love. To know her was to know someone who lived with a quiet strength and a deep trust in her Savior. To know her was to know the love of Jesus,” the obituary for the family’s late matriarch said.
Combs was a mother of five who was studying nursing at Bluegrass Community and Technical College in Kentucky at the time of her death.
“Christina was a remarkable individual, a devoted mother of five and a committed student who worked tirelessly to become the best nurse she could be,” the college’s president, Greg Feeney, said in an earlier statement about Combs. “Her passion for helping others was evident in every aspect of her life, and her strength, perseverance, and compassion inspired everyone who had the privilege of knowing her.”
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