Funeral, Eulogy, and Memorial Talks
TRIBUTE TO EDWARD W. ENSLEN
[Talk by John E. Enslen on January 10, 2009.]
[Except for times of military service or schooling or missionary service, I have lived my entire life of 62 years either in the same house with Daddy and Mama, or next door to them, regardless of where they lived.]
Introduction
My mother, sisters, and I wish to convey our sincere appreciation for your presence here today. We are truly grateful for your many expressions of love throughout Daddy’s extended illness, whether in thought, in prayer, in words of concern, or in tangible gifts of food or flowers. Your genuine friendship has been deeply felt, and we are honored to know each of you as our friends.
Daddy and I attended more than 50 funerals together. Back in the early 1980’s we were sitting in a country church just outside of Eclectic. An eloquent eulogy on the deceased was being given when Daddy punched me in the side and whispered, “I need to go open that casket.” I said, “What do you mean, you need to open the casket?” He responded, “They are burying the wrong man.”
I provide that true episode to make two points. One is that Daddy had a quick wit about him that he kept for as long as he was able to communicate. It was a quick wit that had been sharpened in self-defense every Monday as a member of the Wetumpka Lions Club.
The second point is that a man’s character seems never to improve quite so dramatically as it does between the time of his death and the time of his funeral. Daddy would be the very last person who would have me to portray him in a better light that he deserved, and Daddy would be the very first person to acknowledge that he, just like each of us here, will be heavily relying alone upon the merits of Christ, who is the author and finisher of our faith.
My sisters and I take the position that this memorial service is a proper time and place to extol the virtues of Daddy’s better self, as opposed to focusing on his shortcomings and bad habits. We admit that this will not be a perfectly balanced and comprehensive eulogy. It will contain the things which we choose to remember in honoring our father.
Ancestry
Daddy was a fourth generation Wetumpkian, born on February 10, 1927, in the house that presently serves as the Sesame Street Clubhouse day care center. His great-grandfather immigrated to America from Germany as a teenager in the 1830’s and was the original pioneer settler of the Trotters Trail and Bald Knob areas, rearing with his wife Amelia 11 children to adulthood.
Daddy’s paternal grandfather served as a city councilman, a county commissioner, and as City Marshall of Wetumpka in the 1880’s and 1890’s when there were seven saloons in town.
Daddy’s father was a farmer and cotton ginner, the gin being located where now is situated the city parking lot next to Academy Events. His father also operated a small dairy on the southern outskirts of town near where the Royal Bank of Canada is now located, as well as a small sawmill where the new Walgreens is now located. His father served as Chairman of the Elmore County Democratic Party when that was the only political party in the county or the state. Daddy was 25 years old when his own daddy died in 1952.
Early Childhood
Daddy was two years old when the great stock market crash of 1929 occurred, and he and his older brother grew up during the poverty of the depression. But poverty is a relative thing. Since everyone was poor, no one thought of themselves as being poor.
He was blinded in his right eye at age five in a push scooter accident. That’s the reason he shot a shotgun left-handed.
During his grammar school years, Daddy was run over by a car. The accident took place on Company Street in front of the old Enslen home which later became Evans Funeral Home.
In his early grammar school years, his parents were divorced. His mother, Bertha Cozine, was part Native American and a native of Kansas. After the divorce, Daddy went with his mother to live in Kansas. But that lasted only a couple of months. Daddy did not like it at all. The other children made fun of his short hair and the way he talked.
Daddy was glad to get back to Wetumka, and from that time forward he and his older brother George literally grew up on the streets of Wetumpka without a great deal of parental direction. But there was an abundance of local relatives and friends with whom to associate in positive ways. As a young boy, he often crossed on foot the all-metal bridge that connected the two sides of town, and I enjoyed hearing his stories about the great flood of 1938.
Education
Daddy was educated in the public schools of Wetumpka by truly outstanding educators, beginning with Mrs. Oakley Melton in the first grade at Hohenburg Memorial. He had a deep appreciation for other teachers, including Melissa Emory, Mrs. J. E. Morris, and Mrs. B. Otis Williams.
When he was in junior high, he was part of the first group of students to occupy the new school building on Tallahassee Street. Daddy progressed until graduation in 1944 when a young O.M. Bratton was principal.
In high school he played on the football team. Coach Ray once told me that Daddy was as awkward as an octopus and weighed 135 pounds. He played right tackle, the same position that his Uncle Ehrman Enslen had played the generation before him. It was this same uncle who in 1913 coined Auburn University’s “War Eagle” yell during a pep rally prior to next day’s Georgia game.
Members of Daddy’s 1944 high school football team included Billy Skinner, Louis Estes, Buddy Reeves, Gary Weldon, Gene Ray, Guledge Baker, Jack Russell, Tom Parks, Donald Byrd, and others (William Dozier?). It was that 1944 team that ended Tallassee’s phenomenal, national-record-breaking winning streak by playing them to a hard fought 0 to 0 tie. Players shared the great news with their former older teammates then serving in the military, bragging excitedly over the phone, “We beat Tallassee, nothin’ to nothin’!”
Daddy was a consistent reader and a basically self-educated man. He was an avid writer of letters to relatives and friends. Although he attended only one quarter of college, he was able to converse intelligently on a wide variety of subjects. That one quarter of college was at Birmingham Southern when Mama was pregnant with me. Years later while serving as Tax Assessor, he acquired a law degree by correspondence from the Blackstone School of Law.
I think Daddy’s lack of a formal post-secondary education probably contributed to his healthy admiration for, and friendly associations with, the simple, common man.
Early Work History
Daddy’s introduction into the paid work force was as a delivery boy at age 12, riding “shotgun” on Vic Welden’s rolling store. He assisted Carl Leonard and Gilford Dudley on the weekend route through the hot dusty, or the cold muddy, dirt roads of the rural and desolate Redland area.
Next came his high school job as the bus ticket clerk at Little’s Drug Store where he daily shouted to the waiting passengers: “Wallsboro, Buyck, Levins Store, Speed, Rockford, Hanover, Sylacauga, Sycamore, Winterboro, Talladega, Munford, Oxford, and Anniston – change for all points!”
His last summer job was as a laborer in a Pascagoula, Mississippi, shipyard during the middle stages of World War II.
World War II Experiences
Daddy was allowed to graduate in December of 1944 after the first semester of his senior year at Wetumpka High School. He graduated under a program that allowed young men to graduate a semester early if they joined the war effort. Because Daddy was blind in his right eye, he was considered unfit for combat service. So, in late December of 1944, at age 17, he applied to be a seaman in the Merchant Marines.
He successfully passed his three months of training in St. Petersburg, Florida, and on April 4, 1945, he was awarded the rating of “Cook and Baker” which gave him a higher pay grade and better living conditions on ship than the average seaman.
While participating in training at St. Petersburg, he was able to obtain extra weekend liberty by winning boxing matches. Boxing was a good outlet for his rather quick temper which got him into a handful of fist fights of which I was aware while growing up.
He also won liberty passes by making the best bed, winning the boat rowing contest, and having the best grades. He actually won more weekend liberty passes than he had weekends to use them.
After completing his training as a seaman in the Merchant Marines, Daddy had to find a ship which needed his particular services. He traveled by train to the port of New Orleans and was accepted on the Margaret Lykes, a cargo ship bound for Venezuela. On the return trip from Venezuela, the ship stopped at Cientos Fuegos, Cuba, to take on sugar. The ship safely delivered its cargo to the U.S. port in Galveston, Texas.
About the time that he returned to the U.S., 16-year-old Louise had her appendix removed by Dr. J. F. Sewell. Daddy wanted to see his girlfriend, my future mama, so he used his accumulated two weeks of liberty to visit his hometown of Wetumpka and strengthen his relationship with Louise.
When it was time to return to ship duty, he went to Mobile. But there was no ship position available for him there except as a common seaman. He then went to New Orleans, but found the same situation. He decided to hitchhike to the west coast where his chances would be excellent for boarding a ship as a baker and cook. He thumbed all the way to the Port of San Pedro near Los Angeles, California. There he was accepted for service on the Edward G. Janeway, a new Liberty Ship that had been launched the preceding August.
At the time he boarded the Janeway, about 200 of these lightly armored Liberty Ships had already been sunk in World War II due to U-boat torpedoes, mines, explosions, kamikaze attacks, and an inherent structural defect that could cause the hull to split.
A seldom recognized fact is that the merchant marines experienced a higher percentage of loss of life during World War II than did any branch of the armed services. One in every twenty-six merchant marines serving in World War II died in the line of duty. So far as risking one’s life, joining the merchant marines was more dangerous than joining an infantry or airborne platoon.
After the unescorted Janeway left the California port, Daddy did not see land again until the ship docked temporarily in New Guinea. From there the Janeway traveled to the Philippines, its intended destination. There its cargo of war material was unloaded. Daddy was in the Philippines in August of 1945 when the atomic bombs were dropped on Japan.
With the surrender of Japan, Daddy was able to return to the United States in unmolested waters. He docked at the Port of San Pedro in late September of 1945 and was discharged there. He then hitchhiked across the country again, arriving in Wetumpka in October of 1945. Hitchiking was a common and relatively safe mode of travel for soldiers and sailors who were a part of the “Great Generation.”
By the way, the cooking skills he developed on ship were used throughout his life to help feed his family and his golfing buddies during their annual out-of-town excursions.
Adult Work History
Following the war, Daddy had a long career in public service. It began on the day that he, in an act of kindness I think characteristic of him, crawled under an older gentleman’s vehicle and dislodged a stick which had become wedged in the undercarriage. At that time Daddy was working as the service station attendant at the Nash car dealership located next to the old post office. The dealership was managed by Bernard Collier.
The older gentleman Daddy had assisted was George Bernard Smith, the Tax Assessor of Elmore County. Mr. Smith, on the spot, offered the young gas attendant a job as a clerk in the Tax Assessor’s Office for the duration of the fall tag-selling season. It sounded much better than pumping gas, so Daddy gladly accepted the offer.
He next became an Elmore County Deputy Sheriff, working for recently elected Sheriff Lester Holley. After one and a half years of catching bootleggers and being in charge of all the office paperwork, Daddy returned to the Tax Assessor’s Office, this time as a full-time clerk for E.O. Waites.
He had a mind to run for Tax Assessor at the next election set four years away, but he did not think it right to run against the man for whom he was working, so he sought other employment. In 1956, he took a job as an insurance agent for Liberty National Life Insurance Company, collecting premiums at the homes of the rural people of Elmore County for the next two years.
He was successful in his work and won a trip to Miami, Florida one year and a trip to New Orleans the next year. As a Liberty National agent he enjoyed working with friends and fellow agents Milton Stoudemire, Bubba Haynes, Wilbur Collier, Bobby Lyerly, Billy Skinner, and others (Charles Ferguson?).
When E.O. Waites retired in 1958 with two years remaining in his term of office as Tax Assessor of Elmore County, Sheriff Lester Holley helped Daddy to obtain from Governor “Big Jim” Folsom an appointment to the vacancy. Typical of Daddy’s penchant for brutal honesty, he answered “No” when asked in an interview by the governor whether or not he had voted for Big Jim in the last governor’s race. This frank answer caused Sheriff Holley much anxiety and embarrassment, but Big Jim appointed Daddy to the position of Tax Assessor anyway.
In the election of 1960, Daddy offered himself as a candidate for Tax Assessor, and he won in a close contest against a formidable opponent, Freddie Powell. During his first six-year term he made full use of a natural talent he had for drawing maps and plats, and he produced by hand perhaps the best set of tax parcel maps of any county in the state. As a service to the citizens and voters, he provided free of charge countless boundary drawings of their real property.
Daddy was re-elected to a second six-year term in 1966, unopposed. Daddy was sometimes heard to say: “I have run opposed and I have run unopposed, and I like unopposed better.”
When Probate Judge Willie Cousins decided to retire a few months early in 1970, Daddy was appointed by Governor George Wallace to fill the vacant term. Wetumpka Police Chief Franklin Holt was appointed to fill the vacancy in the Tax Assessor’s Office. Daddy then ran for the Office of Probate Judge later that year. His opponent was his very good friend, Jack Johnston, the Tax Collector. They, and their respective wives, had worked side-by-side in adjoining offices for four years preceding the election.
In an extremely close election, Daddy prevailed. Their political campaigns were free of animosity, and Jack was a gracious looser. Their two sons, Parker Johnston and myself, would later become law partners for 15 years beginning in the late 1980’s.
Daddy would eventually be re-elected as Probate Judge three more times, 1976, 1982 and 1988. In his final election in 1988, he became the first and only Probate Judge in the history of the State of Alabama to win an election against viable competition without putting up a single political sign. Against those five opponents, Wetumpka Councilman Bob Whaley, former Montgomery County Commissioner Cliff Evans, Elmore County Commissioner Leroy Coker, Warren Aaron of Eclectic, and Wayne Smith of Eclectic, he won the democratic nomination in a runoff with Cliff Evans before defeating Republican challenger Wayne Smith in the November 1988 general election. Daddy never switched political parties.
Judge Enslen retired undefeated from the political arena and public service in 1994 at age 67, having been elected to six consecutive six-year terms of public office.
As Probate Judge for 24 years and Chairman of the County Commission for 22 years, Daddy was a dedicated promoter of a fast-growing Elmore County and its marvelous resources. His advertised office slogan was: “Elmore County–A Proud Heritage And A Promising Future.”
As I mention accomplishments with which Daddy was connected, I want to emphasize that he did nothing alone. He always worked in harmony with others whose efforts were no less important than Daddy’s efforts.
He was instrumental in keeping the county on a sound financial basis throughout the 22 years he served as Chairman of the County Commission. It was his early support of a unit system in 1988 that caused certain commissioners to recruit some of the five opponents in his last election.
He was a wise steward in the expenditure of the taxpayers’ money and worked harmoniously with 14 different county commissioners: E. J. Adams, Leroy Coker, Melvin Curlee, Larry Dozier, Hubert Farmer, John Harrington, Jack Holley, Felix Macon, Elzie Mehearg, Earl Reeves, Morris Sanders, Wilbur Spigener, Jimmy Stubbs, and Melvin Taylor.
Time does not permit sharing the details of modernizing the probate office with the use of microfilm, or the establishment of a nationally-recognized county bridge department, or the formation of public water authorities throughout the county, or the founding of the vocational trade school, or the construction of a new health department building, new agricultural center with a livestock exhibition area, new jail and judicial complex, new offices for the Auburn Extension Service, or the establishment of county-wide garbage pickup. But I want to elaborate slightly on just one of the improvements he spearheaded with our tax dollars.
One of the last times Daddy was able to be in public was when Daddy, Mama, and I voted in the recent presidential election. After voting in the Fain Community Center, we were walking slowly down the sidewalk toward our car. I mentioned how nice it was to have electronic voting machines, and how very confident I was in their accuracy. I told Daddy that I had been involved as county attorney in an election contest that required us to count by hand all of the ballots that had been cast. After hours and hours of work, our hand-counted total perfectly matched the total that the machine had provided from the outset.
As I finished my story, Daddy abruptly stopped, and without saying a single word, took a long, stage-like bow, bending from the waist. It then dawned on me that he had been the moving force in replacing the old lever machines with the electronic machines, even before the previous presidential election.
Suffice it to say that Judge Edward W. Enslen was in the vanguard and forefront of the development of this county for almost four decades.
Civic Contributions
I want to mention some of the services Daddy voluntarily contributed to his fellowman and for which he was not paid, at least monetarily.
During his 24 years as Probate Judge he officiated without pay for literally hundreds of weddings.
Because of his special interest in eyesight, in 1947 he joined the Wetumpka Lions Club and was there introduced to the fine culinary art of cooking BBQ, and marketing light bulbs, brooms, and mops. Through the years there were countless other fund-raising projects to benefit the blind and partially blind.
During his 60 years as a Lion, he served as President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer, and Tail Twister. His courthouse office served as a major collection point for discarded eyeglasses that were refitted for more use by others who needed them.
After the war, he became active in Post 4572 of the Veterans of Foreign Wars and Post 7 of the American Legion, holding important positions in both organizations. When he served as Quartermaster of the VFW in the early 1950’s, he led the effort of his post to raise the necessary funds to send the entire Elmore County Band, under the direction of George Truman Welch, to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where they admirably performed at the National VFW Convention.
In the mid-1950’s, Daddy was part of the first effort to establish a Wetumpka Chamber of Commerce. He served on the original Board of Directors of the Chamber in 1953. The president was Ellis Austin and other officers and board members those first two years were Frank Moon, J.D. Grady, Jr., Emmett Chapman, Mac Freeman, “Bubba” Weldon, Truman Reneau, John Loyd Law, Howard Weldon, Vic Welden, Heflin Nolen, W.L. Holt, Merrill Wall, Arris Turner, Jud Landrum, Sr., Silas Martin, Sr., Tom McDow, Ed Sanford, Jasper Barrett, W.H. Cook, Kendall Smith, and the only woman, Beth Austin. Although the Chamber was replaced after just a few years with the Wetumpka Merchants Association, it was a forerunner to our present-day Chamber.
In 1966 and 1967, Daddy served as President of the Wetumpka Quarterback Club. Under his leadership and suggestion, the club constructed and paid for the concrete bleachers on the west side of Hohenberg Memorial Field, causing a change of the “home” side from East to West.
Also, in the year, 1967, he played a major role in establishing Edgewood Academy which has produced more than 1,000 outstanding, college-prepared graduates. He served on its Board of Directors for well over two decades.
In the mid and late 1970’s, Daddy was a mover and a shaker along with Bill Gray, Al Harris, T. Sanford, Jack Walker, Morris Sanders, Mason Lanier, Kyle Whitaker, Mike Ray, and others in the establishment and construction of a local country club where golfers could enjoy their addictive pastime without having to travel to Montgomery. Daddy served as the first President of Quail Walk Country Club in 1974 and followed that year with another year as President in 1975.
In 1978, Judge Enslen was elected by his peers throughout the State of Alabama to serve as President of the Probate Judges Association of Alabama.
He served many years as a member of the Central Alabama Regional Planning Commission.
In the early 1980’s, he served a term as President of the Elmore County Children’s Organization which began construction during his term of the children’s home on the hill behind the YMCA.
For many years Daddy served on the Board of Directors of the Montgomery Area United Way. He also served on multiple occasions as the County Chairman of the American Heart Association and the American Cancer Society.
Along with John Brooks, Daddy was instrumental in the initial development of Fort Toulouse.
He helped Jimmy Collier raise funds for the construction of the YMCA building, and he was a major supporter of the Humane Shelter.
In 1999, he was the “hanging judge” that helped raise money for the Leukemia Society.
Personal Character Traits
One of Daddy’s golfing friends, Kendall Smith, once remarked, “Edward Enslen is either playing hard, working hard, or sleeping hard.” Daddy had a special knack for being able to fall asleep at almost any time and any place, especially at a social gathering which he was hosting in his home.
At one time, in his mind was more knowledge about who lived in Elmore County, where they lived, what land they owned, and who they were kin to than any other ten people combined. Daddy’s friendly, personable manner gained him countless friends, and I would venture to say that he has served as a pall bearer at more funerals than any other man in the history of our county.
Marriage and Family Life
I have intentionally saved for last the most personal and most important part of this address—family life with Daddy.
Returning to Wetumpka in 1945 after the war, Daddy continued courting a cute little cheerleader who graduated from Wetumpka High School in December of that year. Daddy and Mama were married on February 8, 1946, at the bride’s home on North Bridge Street. They were married by Rev. Everett Calvert of the First Baptist Church of Wetumpka. Daddy was still 18 years old, and Mama was barely 17.
Nine months and four days later, these two teenagers were blessed with the birth of the first of their three children. The second child, Emily, was born one year and 18 days after the first child.
My parents met the challenge of raising children in two entirely different generations. Children born in 1946 and 1947 were born into a very different world from a child born in 1965. But it can still be said by all three of us children that we were born of goodly parents.
Daddy and Mama would have celebrated their 63rd wedding anniversary next month. Daddy never ceased being a romantic. He liked to dance with, sing to, and hold hands with Mama. They now have 10 grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren with more likely to come. For the longevity of their marriage, I wish to give credit where credit is due, and that is to my and my sisters’ loving, patient, long-suffering, forgiving, angel mother, who has rarely left Daddy’s bedside over the past eight months.
Although Daddy was a disciplinarian, often demanding, and not opposed to corporal punishment, my memories of my childhood are pleasant. Daddy had a knot somewhere on one of his legs, long since removed by surgery. As a small boy, I could mash that knot with my finger and make his leg do all sorts of magical tricks.
He made sure that we children respected our elders. He taught us to say “Yes, sir” and “No, sir.” The worse thing we could do was to sass Mama.
When I would do something good, like cutting the grass without his asking that I do so, he would like to say, “That’s a my boy” which is a phrase he plagiarized from an old black and white TV serial you may remember.
Daddy spent quality time with me. He took me fishing. He taught me how to paddle with one hand and fly fish with the other. Daddy and I enjoyed fly fishing in the spring with a white peck’s popping bug about daylight when the willow flies were hatching. We were often accompanied by Ben H. Jones or Louis Estes.
He taught me how to shoot a gun, and he took me hunting. By the time I was 11, I had my own shotgun and was allowed to go hunting alone in the woods behind the house. Daddy and I enjoyed hunting doves, or quail, or ducks on a clear, crisp, winter day. We owned good bird dogs in my childhood, and I had the responsibility to feed them.
Speaking of duck hunting, he was one of the champion waders of Speigner Swamp. He once told one of my visiting college classmates while we were trudging through that miserable mire on a dark, cold night: “You’re not a man until you’ve waded Speigner Swamp.”
He taught me how to water ski way back when Daddy. was the only man on Lake Jordan to slalom behind a 12-horsepower Wizard. That boat and outboard motor were purchased at the Western Auto and were half-owned by Billy Skinner and Daddy. I was proud of Daddy when he learned to kick off the other ski instead of just holding it up in the air with his free leg.
He bought me golf clubs and drove me to Bonnie Crest Country Club. Daddy derived a great deal of pleasure playing golf with his buddies over the years, like T. Sanford, Ed Sanford, Kendall Smith, Larry Pickett, Watt Jones, Chuck Smith, James Myers, Stokely Bazemore, Bill Gray, Dale Bullock, Bobby Murchison, Bill Joiner, and many others. But whenever he and I played in the same group, he and I were always partners against the other players. We could not be divided.
Daddy taught me how to play dominoes. He was an above average domino player and occasionally did well at the annual World Championship Domino Tournament in Andalusia. One of our family goals was for him and me to win the doubles championship at the Quail Walk Invitational, and in 2005, he successfully carried the two of us to victory.
He started taking me to college football games when I was six years old. He was fiercely loyal to the Bear and the Crimson Tide, being one of those who loved the Tide and hated the Tiger. I once asked him why he pulled against Auburn. He said many years ago a certain Auburn fan in the Lions Club (and it was not Wayne Davis), said one Monday: “Well, we had a perfect weekend. Auburn won and Alabama lost.” Daddy never liked getting beat at anything, but he was a good sport and paid his bets.
On Sunday afternoons in my youth, Daddy and I played touch football games with Jack Arant, Billy Skinner, Bill Skinner, and other neighborhood kids and adults, using the Skinner’s backyard next door in Brookside Drive as our football field.
Daddy took a keen personal interest in his children’s education and in their report cards. He liked “A’s” on report cards. Departing for high school each day, his usual final words to Emily, Ellyn, and me were, “Make a hunnerd.” He provided the opportunity for a college education for his children.
In addition to our formal education, he personally taught us the importance of hard work and self-reliance, and the importance of being honest in all our dealings with our fellow man.
When I was in senior high school, we attended inspirational meetings called “chapel” that were held in the school auditorium. Our principal Mr. Bratton was sometimes the speaker. On one occasion he talked about honesty and told of a former student who found a $20.00 gold piece in the gymnasium and turned it into Mr. Bratton at his office. After chapel, Mr. Bratton came to me and told me that the former student to whom he had made reference was my father.
As one who was very jealous of his reputation for honesty, Daddy once rose from the barber chair in which he was seated and slapped the man seated in the barber chair next to him. The man had accused Daddy of stealing public money. Daddy was arrested but was acquitted based on provocation in a trial before a special judge appointed by the Alabama Supreme Court to hear the case.
Daddy supported my sisters and me in our school and sports activities. When I was playing football in college, he would drive to Clemson, South Carolina, to watch me practice on Saturday, stay with me in my room that night, and then drive back the next day. That was a 640-mile roundtrip just to watch a two hour practice.
Daddy and Mama took Emily and me on many fun-filled, memorable summer vacations.
He gave all of his children cars, and he gave Emily and me land upon which to build our homes. Of course, this was in addition to supplying all of the necessities of life and being a generous Santa Claus.
Good fathers are the hope of this world. I truly pity fathers who place more value on financial or social success than on the value of a happy home. The greatest work a man will ever do will be within the walls of his own home. No success outside of the home can ever compensate for failure inside the home.
Conclusion
Daddy loved this land we call Elmore County. We would sometimes hear him say, “I am of this soil.” He was a full beneficiary of all the amenities that this special part of planet earth offers.
During that same time that he enjoyed the benefits of mortality, he returned to his fellow man a meaningful portion of his precious time and effort.
Next to my wife Dianne, my father and mother are literally the best friends I ever had. I knew I could count on them, and they never let me down. I will miss Daddy, and perhaps so will you. But in this knowledge we may all take comfort—Life is eternal, because of Jesus Christ. I leave these words with you in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.