Houston – 1963 (1)

Developing Life Long Friendships

Most of the people in the country started 1963 full of hope.  John and Jackie Kennedy had convinced many of the people that we were now living in Camelot.  Before the year was out John F. Kennedy was assassinated and the dream of Camelot began to die.

For us it was the beginning of a new era of lives.  It would mark the beginning of a direction that our paths would tread for many years.  We moved our household goods on December 31.   We didn’t even have a place to go.  Before the day was out, we had rented an apartment on Pinemont in the north part of Houston.  It was only about three blocks from the church building on North Shepherd Drive.

Garden Oaks would be the largest church that we would work with.  At the time there were more than 700 members.   Truman Spring was a human dynamo and moved things along in fantastic direction.   You either loved or hated Truman.  There wasn’t much middle ground.  I was among those who loved him.

We were to spend nine months there.   We developed some lifelong friends, especially J. C. and Icy Thomas, Truman and Evelyn, and Louie and Iola Faye Welch.  Louie would later become mayor of Houston, but he was about as down to earth an individual as you would ever meet.  I got a call from Louie when I was in Shreveport, not too long before he died.  About a year before Truman died, I spent a night in Houston and stayed with him.   I helped conduct the funeral services for both Truman and his wonderful wife Evelyn.  These were friendships that spanned 5 decades

Evelyn was a person I’ll never forget.  While Truman was gregarious, she was reserved.  Many people did not know her well at all.  She was one of the most gracious and unselfish persons I’ve ever had the privilege of knowing.  Truman had a reputation for putting people in their place when they crossed him.  He never tried that with Evelyn.  I always enjoyed watching the interaction between the two of them in a Bible class.  Truman had a deep voice and a persuasive manner.  People were reluctant to take issue with him, but sometimes Evelyn would speak up in class and say something like, “I don’t understand what you’re saying.”  All of a sudden Truman would backtrack and become the most humble person you could imagine. That broke the ice and others would start speaking up. There is no way to measure the tremendous love that existed between these two people.  I’m glad I could number them among my friends.