|
 I started on my way of life on a hot
day in August in 1898 in the mountains of Tennessee four miles south
of Midway. I was third in a family of twelve children, seven boys
and five girls. We were farmers and lived in the country.
Rev. Francis M.R. Willard and I were
married on Christmas Day in 1913. We moved my things to Meade,
Kansas where Francis was living. He had three preaching points and
other places where he preached sometimes. Francis had a team of
mules that he drove to a buggy.
We had four children, three boys and
one girl, but we lost our daughter when she was ten years old with
Flu pneumonia. My husband served 37 years as pastor and District
Elder. We raised our three boys to manhood. Our oldest son, Archie
lived in Haven, Kansas. Our second son, Burleigh, is a Missionary.
He and his family served a number of years in the Dominican
Republic. His wife died while he was there and he brought his three
little ones back to America and made his home with us for a year. He
then remarried and in another year returned to the Dominican
Republic. They were Missionary teachers at the Bible School at
Nogales, Arizona where he was also principal of the school. They had
two girls and two boys. Our youngest son, Johnnie lives in
California.
Burleigh wrote:
I was extremely fortunate to be born
in a healthy religious atmosphere. Most of my early memories
centered around loving parents and siblings, family devotions and
Sunday morning worship. Usually, my father's pastorates included a
church in town and another in the country. To this day I get a warm
feeling whenever I hear church bells ring, or see a white country
church. Since my father was the pastor and my mother his most
enthusiastic supporter, I always felt at home in church. I remember
one Sunday morning I slipped away from my mother and ran up to the
pulpit where my father was preaching. Without missing a beat he
scooped me up and placed me in his big chair behind the pulpit and
then continued his sermon. Something about the way he placed me
firmly in the chair made me realize I was not to move from there
until he finished preaching. That was the first, but not the last
time, I shared the pulpit with my father. At the age of 13, I made
my final commitment to Christ and I have never turned back.
Burleigh was very close to parents and siblings while he was
growing up. He remembers in detail the day his 10-year-old sister,
Opal Ruth, fell ill.
One sunny Saturday in February, Opal
Ruth went out on the south porch to play. The air was balmy so no
one thought about there being danger of catching cold. She spread a
quilt down on the porch and played with her dolls. Sunday morning
she seemed to have a cold, but it did not seem too severe, so we all
bundled up and went to church. Papa was off in Western Kansas so we
walked the three or four blocks to church and back. In the afternoon
mother became aware that she was quite ill, so she stayed with her
that night while I went to church alone. We called the doctor early
in the morning and he was concerned at once and said that she had
pneumonia. We managed to reach Papa by phone and he started home at
once, but did not arrive until evening. There was no hospital nearby
and our regular family doctor was out of town. The only doctor
available was an old gentleman who carried on only limited practice,
but I am sure he did all he could. Neither of the folks slept that
night. I was sent to call my brother back home from college. I
walked back home and when I came in the door, mother met me and
said: "She is gone." I couldn't believe that it could happen and
that it could be so sudden. I suppose the loss of my only sister
endeared the memory to me in a special way. Mother, of course, never
got over the loss. She kept mementos of Opal Ruth until she herself
passed away in 1979. Papa died in 1960. I remember thinking many
times as I grew older how much I would have liked to have a sister
to help me understand life and the opposite sex. I sorely envied
brother and sister combinations in college.
In the fall of 1937 I enrolled in
Central College in Kansas. The second year I was chosen as the bass
singer of the college quartet and thoroughly enjoy the week-end
excursions to different churches in the patronizing territory. I
also discovered a young lady from Nebraska that I had not noticed
the year before. I lost no time in asking her for a date and it
wasn't long until we were considered a "steady couple" on campus.
Her name was Amy Hankins. I still needed two years of ministerial
study at Greenville College in Illinois, so she agreed to teach
school while I finished and then we would be married. I graduated in
the 50th Jubilee class of Greenville College in Illinois. My father,
who had graduated in 1911 came for the graduation bringing mother
and my brother, Johnnie, with him. Amy stayed for the graduation
ceremonies then went home to Ravenna. I was busy that summer as
papa's assistant pastor and working in harvest to get some money
together for the wedding. At conference time I was ordained deacon
and to my great satisfaction was appointed pastor of the Macksville
Free Methodist Church. The Sunday following the close of the Annual
Conference, we all congregated at Amy's home near Ravenna, Nebraska
for the wedding.
I have told many times how God led us
to leave Macksville after one year there to attend the Biblical
Seminar in New York. This was indeed a turning point in our
ministry. There we learned the inductive method of Bible study,
which has been the key to ministry ever since. It was here also that
God finally called me to be a missionary. At the end of the summer
session in 1945 we both graduation from the Seminary and the same
day I received my ordination as elder and we were both commissioned
as missionaries to the Dominican Republic.
Suffice it to say that we were both
occupied constantly with learning Spanish, preparing Bible lessons,
and participating in the organization of the Bible School and the
whole Institute. We also became the parents of three lovely children
that we loved dearly: Celia Rose, Francis Burleigh Jr. and Emily
Sue.
[to top of second column] |
Then tragedy struck. Soon after the
birth of Emily Sue, Amy died unexpectedly in her sleep from a
coronary thrombosis. A blood clot had lodged in her heart. The
doctor later said that she never knew any anxiety or pain. She
simply woke up in the presence of our Lord. Although I was able to
secure a young lady to care for the children during the day, I soon
realized that I could not be true to my family and my job in this
way. I contacted my parents who by this time had retired and were
living in Macksville, Kansas. They graciously invited us to come to
live with them although their house was small and they were not at
all well. So we lived in Macksville with the folks for a year as I
worked through my grief over Amy's untimely death.
In September I needed to make a trip
to Winona Lake for the Annual Meeting of the General Missionary
Board to make my report and plan for the future. I knew that Alma
Gregory (Amy's very best friend) was teaching school in the St.
Louis area, so after much thought and prayer, I decided to leave a
day early so I could visit her on my way to Headquarters. We had a
delightful dinner and a time for visiting and information about my
children that she was very interested in. I left with a glow in my
heart and the conviction that God was indeed guiding my life. During
the next few months Alma and I both came to the realization that it
was God's plan for us to marry and to continue my ministry in the
Dominican Republic. Before we could go, however, we spent a year in
Houston, pastoring the Free Methodist Church. So after a year in
Houston, and the birth of our son, Philip, we packed up again and
made our way to the Dominican Republic. Here we spent the next six
years teaching in the Bible School and I was also elected Director
(Principal) of the entire Institute. We were stationed in Nogales,
Arizona where the Bible School was located for Mexican students.
This move was made in 1959. We remained in this location until our
retirement in 1985.
The first special event was a farewell
service at the Mexican Conference in May. We were deeply touched by
the tributes and expressions of gratitude by our long time Mexican
friends and colleagues. This was followed by a retiral banquet and
tributes to Alma by the Nogales Public School System in honor of her
seventeen years of service.
We located affordable housing in a new
development in Phoenix, Arizona where we had four Free Methodist
Churches as well as two Hispanic churches. We enjoyed ten years of
fairly good retirement until we began to experience some severe
physical problems and the area where we were living began to
deteriorate. After much prayer, we were able to sell our house and
move into our new apartment at Glencroft Christian Retirement
Community in Glendale, Arizona in June 1999. In 2001, Alma was
diagnosed with Osteoarthritis. She also had a series of mini strokes
that had scrambled or destroyed her memory and reasoning abilities.
By 2002, her ability to care for herself, prepare meals, etc also
began to decline alarmingly, so I had to take over most of these
functions. I believe due to the earnest prayers of God's people she
began to improve. Alma's improvement continued into 2003. After
several falls, she was taken to the Skilled Nursing Unit at the
Glencroft Care Center. Needless to say, even though I had
experienced many health issues of my own, I was saddened to think I
no longer could care for her. I was at her bedside everyday until
her death on November 29th 2003. Celia, my daughter, was there, and
it was a great comfort for me to have her there.
All of our family was able to come for
the funeral services, except two. I was overwhelmed with the
outpouring of sympathy and support from our family and friends and
the love that surrounded me in those difficult days.
In 2005, while living with my son and
his wife in Chicago, I again had to deal with failing health. Since
Celia, my daughter, was retiring from teaching in May, I reluctantly
agreed to move to Lincoln, Il. to live with Celia. This reluctance
soon vanished as Celia prepared a room for me in her house and I
made a couple of visits to Lincoln to be with her and continue work
on the book we were writing together. Celia has been a great help
and inspiration to me in preparing the devotional book and four
others for printing. These include Streams of Living Water, The
Legacy of Frances, Overcoming with Christ, Friend of Angels, and
Jason of Tarsus.
I will finish by telling you that my
overall health is seeming to deteriorate slowly, but I feel that the
Lord has assured me that He will give me strength to finish the task
of publishing the books.
After that I expect to soon be called
home to be with Him.
God did give Burleigh the strength to finish his books with the
help of his daughter Celia. All of his books have been published,
and not long ago, he came to stay with us here at The Christian
Village. God continued to use him here to inspire us. He joined our
writer's group and shared his memories on his journey through life.
We enjoyed reading Burleigh's books and reminiscing with him.
On
March 16, 2011, God called Burleigh home. May he rest in peace. He
will be missed.
[Christian Village "Meet the Resident" article by REBECCA
JOHNSON]
(Obituary: F. Burleigh
Willard Sr.)
 |
