NEW ORLEANS — New Orleans lost another colorful character as the “Umbrella Man’s” life-long spiritual journey is over.
Keith Sam with his bull horn in hand and umbrella cap preached the word for more than a half-century on Canal Street.
“He was on an assignment,” his sister Yvette Sam said. “He had a purpose that God had given him that he wanted him to fulfill.”
Sam died just after midnight following a long battle with stomach cancer.
"Inspiring, loving, and appreciative, but always, always, always stood on the word of God,” his sister said.
WWL Louisiana spoke with Sam from his hospital bed in March. The legendary street evangelist told us you must accept what you cannot change.
“He has a purpose, all things in life as well as in death,” Sam said. “That’s the reality we’ll all have to face.”
He faced death with a sense of peace.
“Even though we are ill, even though we’re well,” Sam said. “The word says to live as Christ.”
Sam’s sister said her family is not mourning her brother’s loss, instead she says they are celebrating the life of a man who made a difference in New Orleans.
“Somebody, who would be considered by some few as a nobody, trying to tell everybody about somebody that can save anybody,” she said.
Keith Sam was 65 years old.
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