I can’t begin to remember the horror stories I listened to about
protective “older brother Hiram” guarding his brood of younger sisters
throughout their school days between Welty, Mason, and Bristow. Tommie and I
once laughingly celebrated this fastidious man by giving him a 45-rpm record
called “Chew Tobacco Rag”. It was a good piece of “blue grass” but the fact is
Hiram chewed tobacco while commuting daily from Shawnee into Norman.
I never could understand how a man as fastidiously clean
as he was, would insert a plug of that nasty stuff into his mouth. Ugh!!! Although
he was a daily commuter, and frequently drove his car, but this neat-freak tobacco-chewer
would not allow passengers to smoke in his car because that would “stink up his
car.” What that did to his insides I have no idea, but I find the very idea abhorrent and repulsive to this
day; although funny.
“Hi” or “Harm” was Doc and Mary’s oldest sibling. He
could repair any kind of motor and make anything work. He worked his way up the
ladder at Tinker AFB, after working for some years in Bristow. He became head
of the Electrical Engineering Department following studies at Oklahoma A&M
and that was his life when we visited shortly after my discharge back in the
days another friend, Elam Lambert, served as pastor of Shawnee First Church of
God. It was also my first introduction to Oklahoma Baptist University as well
as my very first taste of good soft ice cream. I never found any as good as
what I experienced on that visit to Shawnee.
"Hi"; "Harm” was the older brother that serviced every aircraft
as if his next younger brother Gilbert would be flying it. Tender enough to
protect his younger sisters from “boys,” “Hi” could be tough as nails in the
face of four stars. One day he stood nose-to-nose with an Air Force General at
Tinker AFB and informed “four-stars” … “not
on my watch with my brother flying…” That well-intentioned General thought to
save Uncle Sam some money and ordered Hiram to service all aircraft with a
cheaper grade of oil that Hiram knew was less dependable and subject to engine
failure but Hiram hustled all four stars hurriedly back to the Pentagon.
Hiram was the big brother that mentored his baby sister
and taught her much of the life she practiced throughout her ninety-one years
of life. He was the man Doc Stiles fought savagely to save, and did save, after
Hiram accidently literally blew his leg off just below the knee in a freakish
accident while climbing through a barbed-wire fence. It took some effort on
Doc’s part but Hiram lived to invest years of successful service at Tinker, aided
by his dependable prosthesis.
Hiram died on the campus of Oklahoma Baptist University
adjacent to his home from a well-planned self-inflicted gun-shot to the
forehead that resulted when illness twisted his thinking processes and
convinced him he was “resolving a bad situation with Hodgkins lymphoma” for his
family--as our family physician in Fort Worth explained it later. I haven’t yet
forgotten the intense conversation we had following that service with an old
friend Pastor George Arnold, who did Hiram’s service ever so splendidly.
I still remember Tommie and I bracing Mary as we
entered the Funeral home for that final service and Mary saying: It just wasn’t
supposed to be this way!”
Younger “flying brother” attended Texas A&M after a
stint in the Civilian Conservation Corp. During WWII, Gilbert went MIA in the
South Pacific and the San Antonio Evening
Light carried the story of the four crewmen that I still have on file yet today.
He distinguished himself as a “flyboy” by leading the squadron for seventeen
months that Wisconsin Air Ace Richard Bong earlier vacated after six months of
duty, before teaching a lot of other young Airmen the basics of flying.
Gilbert (Gib) led numerous punishing raids in the South
Pacific through such notable battles as Rabaul and the re-taking of New Guinea
from the Japanese. Part of that time he spent piloting what “they” then called
“flying coffins.” As is typical, this decorated Veteran never discussed his war experiences, but following his extended military career he gave up management of his
seventeen-section ranching interests on the southwest Texas border where his
daddy-in-law operated another twenty-seven sections (I did say sections) of
long-haired Angora Goats. Gib then became a self-employed Texas Business
Executive with clients that included such exotic names as Lady Bird Johnson
(like Mrs. LBJ), with whom he distinguished himself.
Two younger boys formed the bottom rungs of the fourteen-step
Stiles’ ladder for this family of eight siblings and six inherited cousins.
Bennet Allen, the older of the two youngest brothers and just younger than
Tommie, completed his military service and went into business, becoming the
owner of a large tree-trimming company servicing the MKO area of
Missouri-Kansas-Oklahoma. Baby brother “Mo”, tallest of the five males in the
family of man-sized men, stood 6’ 4 ½. Following his near-death experience when
he came close to freezing when caught out in Alaskan weather; he became a “man
of the cloth” much to his mother’s singular delight and in answer to her
passionate prayers.
Named Maurice Warren, “Mo” began his preaching ministry
as an unknown country preacher at home in the village where he grew up. Rather
than allow the village church to die without nurturing, “Brother Mo” assumed
that leadership role and became modestly successful with it. He consequently
received a call to move down state and into the small town of Paul’s Valley. By
the time he had become a successful pastor of that growing church, some of his
church-folk migrated into “The City” with changes of employment.
“Mose” consequently received an eventual call to become
an urban church planter where he established the Church of God in the Oklahoma
City suburb of Moore. He retired in Moore years later after distinguishing
himself through years of building up a once-mini-sized church and through
giving years of service with the Moore PD, and additional service with the OK
Highway Patrol in chaplaincy work
.
He served significantly during the Oklahoma City bombing
disaster and had become the Church of God Executive Minister of Oklahoma
Ministries before his retirement. During this time he also formed a liaison
prayer partnership with Dr. John Conley, then President of Mid-America Bible College
(now MACU). I should say Ben was more than a Christian Business man.
Marrying a Freewill Baptist girl, he became a Deacon in that denomination, one
of a select few ordained beyond the local level) and very involved in Mexican
Missions (when I run across it again I will tell a neat story about Ben’s hill of beans), making
frequent trips to Mexico where he became well known for his humanitarian efforts.
Ben died prematurely
when a massive heart attack caused him to wreck his truck near Okemah. Today his
grandchildren carry on their Christian legacy in ways today that would make Ben
proud.
This I know: Mary took unquestionable pride in all four sons ...
walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com
No comments:
Post a Comment