She spent more than eight decades making thousands of divine treats for family, friends and strangers. So, it makes sense that a tribute to her life of service and dedication would feature pie.

Clarksville United Methodist Church is offering a free, open-to-the-public dessert experience honoring the late Bobbi Fox at 6 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 3 – which would have been her 94th birthday.

“Bobbi spent much of her life baking a variety of delicious pies and generously sharing her love for others through the gift of her pies given on many occasions,” said the Rev. Beomseon Hong, the church’s pastor. “We are so thankful and blessed to have been touched by her life of serving and nourishing others through her love and many acts of kindness.”

Fox began making pies at age nine with her mother, Edna. She got the hang of it so quickly that her father, Ezra, would ask for slices at breakfast. Fillings were fruit, nuts and flavorings.

“They were all delicious,” said church member Erin Garrison.

Fox would make crusts one day, then fill and bake the next. She rarely measured ingredients, admitting it was fun to see if experience and a good guess resulted in fortune or failure. She also loved sharing recipes and would offer culinary advice if asked.

JoAnne Smiley, another church member, said Fox was just as kind to visitors as she was to those with familiar faces.

“She was open to everyone,” said Smiley, whose late husband, Wayne, favored Fox’s raisin cream. “Her gift was there. She used it again and again and again.”

Hong concedes to being a pie heretic before arriving as minister at Clarksville and Louisiana’s Centenary United Methodist in July 2021. All it took to convert him was one of Bobbi’s lemon pies and a coconut cream.

“She changed my taste,” Hong confessed. “So, now I like pie.”

If Fox didn’t bring tasty joy to the people, she invited the people to her succulently fragrant house. “Her counter would be full of different pies,” church member Linda Frank recalled with delight. “It was a like a pie smorgasbord.”

Janie Busch helps organize a lot of the church’s community meals, and visited with Fox on May 18 – the day before she passed. Busch remembers the conversation turned to an event the next day for which Fox had hoped to bake.

“She said, ‘I just feel so bad because I know they’re expecting me to bring pies,’” Busch said. “The last thing she was thinking about was serving others.”

Church member Barb Meyer said Fox had the kind of intellect, talent, compassion and selflessness that went far beyond her kitchen.

“It’s not just about pie,” Meyer said. “She was an inspiration and urged us to do more and more. She went beyond her church and family.”

Clarksville United Methodist is at the corner of Highway 79 and Howard Street. The highway is open to the north of the sanctuary and there is a detour on city streets around construction for those coming into town from the south or west.

Busch says the Aug. 3 event will be a kind of pie potpourri – with a mix of homemade and store-bought delicacies. Guests are welcome to bring their own desserts and share memories of a woman who would sometimes whip up 15 pies at a time without blinking an eye.

“It’s going to be like any other event we do,” Busch said. “Bobbi would show up, open her car and the pies would flow out. We don’t know what we’re going to get.”