Rodney McFarland, I, was born in Hartford, Conn. After the death of his mother, Millicent Marie McFarland, at the age of thirty-six, with breast cancer, he was placed in a foster home for thirteen months. Afterwards, he was given to his paternal grandmother, the Late Venetta Sadie Connor-Johnson of Crowville, Louisiana.
At the age of eleven, McFarland accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord and united with the Pilgrim Baptist Church of Winnsboro, Louisiana under the Leadership of the Late Rev. Eugene Lumpkin, Sr. The following Sunday he was baptized in Owen Lake in the heart of Winnsboro by the Late Rev. Eugene Lumpkin, Sr. Afterwards he served as a musician until going off to college.
McFarland is the former President of the Louisiana Funeral Directors and Morticians Association where he served as the youngest President ever to be elected, being so by his colleagues across the state of Louisiana in 1996. He has served a 2-year term as a board member of the National Funeral Directors and Morticians Association and is the Founder and Mortician of McFarland Funeral Companies of Delhi and Monroe, Louisiana, and Founder of Morning Rest Memorial Gardens of Tallulah, Louisiana. He was also the first Black Assistant Coroner of Richland Parish.
He is a lifetime member of the Sigma Phi Sigma Fraternity, President of the Theta Chapter of Epsilon Nu Delta Fraternity. Former member of the American Society of Embalmers and the British Institute of Embalmers of the United Kingdom
He serves as Grand Chaplain of the MW Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Louisiana, a District Deputy Grand Master, a 33rd Degree Mason and a Shriner.
McFarland is the proud Pastor of the Greater Free Gift Missionary Baptist Church of Monroe, Louisiana for the past 35 years and the Moderator (President) of the North Louisiana Old Line Missionary Baptist Association.
On the political level, he is the former District 5 Monroe City School Board Member and served as President of the School Board for three consecutive years. He is the former Chairperson of the Ouachita Parish Democratic Executive Committee and was a 2008, 2012, 2016, and 2020 Elected Delegate to the National Democratic Convention. On March 23, 2024, he was elected as a Councilman for the District 4 of Monroe, Louisiana.
He was appointed by Governor John Bel Edwards in March of 2017 to the Louisiana State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors, were he served as the President of the State Board for the years of 2021 and 2022.
He is the husband of Nikki V. Wade-McFarland, the father of six wonderful children. Rev. Rodney McFarland, Jr., Quinton R. McFarland, Dr. Millicent M. McFarland, Tony Potts, Christopher Wheeler and Andres McFarland, grandfather of eleven, and Godfather of too many to name.