He Was An Inspiration To All

Charles Devall

Charles Devall, a church friend of mine, was recently interviewed for the Member Moments Oral History Project of Zachary United Methodist Church. Sadly, Charles lost his battle with brain cancer on September 7, 2015. He refused to let cancer define who he was or what he was cable of doing. He was blessed with a great Christian marriage of mutual love and respect. As a tribute to the admirable man Charles was, here is an excerpt from that oral history interview I conducted in April of this year.

"The values and beliefs I developed from attending Zachery United Methodist are honesty, faith, and the importance of following the teachings of the Bible. I learned the Gold Rule to treat others as I wanted them to treat me. I have lived my life by these values and beliefs.

I remember attending church in the wooden church. I enjoyed ringing the church bell by pulling on the rope. Robin Pope liked ringing the bell more than anyone. I also remember the church was not air-conditioned, and it got really hot inside during the summertime. Back then we had Sunday night church services too.

Charles smiled and said, “I have been blessed with a good life. I enjoyed working for Ethyl Corporation as a plant Electrical Supervisor between 1966 and 1985 when Ethyl shut down the Baton Rouge plant.” He continued to recall that he worked at other jobs after Ethyl but that was the job he enjoyed the most and still has friends and meaningful relationships from his years of working at Ethyl Corporation. He and Sherry meet former co-workers for dinner several times a year.

One of the more interesting things Charles told me was about his wedding day. “After he was dressed and about ready to go to the church, Chief of Police Pryor Browning came to the door and told me he had an important warrant to serve on me (His wife was our wedding planner.). He placed me into the rear seat of the police car and drove toward the church. As we were pulling onto Old Baker Road, a car went speeding by us. He told me to hold on he could not let someone go that fast without ticketing them. He caught the driver, gave him a ticket, and then we got to the church just in time for me to walk out into the sanctuary. Sherry was beautiful and we had a wonderful wedding. I don’t know how many grooms arrive at their wedding in a police car, but that is how I arrived at my wedding."

He had many stories that will now go untold.  He had a zest for life and loved to laugh and make others laugh. He was honest, dependable, pleasant to everyone and a man of great Christian character. Charles is gone from this earth but he is alive in our memories and I was blessed to have known him. 

Quasquicentennal Memories

The Quasqui-centennial Celebration is October 11th!  Members of Zachary United Methodist Church will be celebrating One-hundred-twenty-five years of worshiping God on the same location.  From the Zachary Methodist Episcopal Church South in 1890, to Zachary United Methodist Church today, we have the distinction of praising our Lord on the same location.

The first wooden church burned in 1914.  Later that same year, the second wooden church was built on the ashes of the first church.  In the mid-1940s, the church membership grew, and there was a need to build a larger sanctuary.  After a two plus years of a Capital Campaign, the present brick sanctuary was completed in 1949.  The second wooden church moved to the east of where it sat and served as Sunday school classes.  They built the current sanctuary in the same location as the two previous churches.

On October 11, present members will come together with former members to celebrate our history and to look forward to the future.  It should be a homecoming for former members.  There will be “dinner on the grounds” after the single worship service.  The highlight of the event will be various historical displays, a PowerPoint of forty plus wedding couples married in the church and the introduction of the ten senior members of the congregation who participated in the Member Moments Oral History Project.  Ten members, most who are the last generation who lived through the Great Depression, were interviewed about their memories of Zachary Methodist Church, the town of Zachary, Louisiana and other firsthand experiences they lived through.  A limited number of booklets covering the interviews, with a brief history of the church, will be available at the Quasqui-centennial event for $5.00 each.

The eldest member recording memories of her life at Zachary United Methodist Church was Minnie Kirkwood Jackson.  She was born 27 June 1925 in Zachary, the daughter of Ramey and Myrtle Davis Kirkwood.  She was born at home, located then at Old Baker and Zachary Highways, where her five brothers and five sisters were also born and grew to adulthood.  At one time, her corner of Zachary was known as “Kirkwoodville” because after her father’s brothers married they moved back to the same area and raised their families as well.  “Kirkwoodville was about a mile south of the present First Baptist Church and my grandfather, David Smiley Kirkwood, owned and operated a grocery store across from our house,” Minnie remembered fondly.  She also tells that “The school bus made an early run on the outskirts of Zachary, then it dropped off those students, and it came back and got us.  We filled the entire bus.  I graduated from Zachary High School in 1943” Minnie recalled. She married Gordon B. Jackson in 1945, and they had one daughter, Delrina Jackson Maney.

Minnie remembers Felicia Lipscomb (now Fitzgerald) and Winfred McHost as her best friends at church.  Minnie also remembers attending the wooden church and could remember Robin Pope ringing the bell to call everyone to church.  She remembers there was no air conditioning back then, and they raised the stained-glass windows for ventilation to cool the church.  That was the second wooden church because the first one burned in 1914.  She remembered that, “there were at one time, 47 members of the Kirkwood family that attended the Methodist Church in Zachary.  Now I am the last.  I have two brothers and two sisters surviving and my sister Vida Mae is not doing well.  I am worried about her.”  She recalls fundraising for the new brick church in 1948 and 1949; it was an exciting day when they rang the bell for service in that new church in 1949.  “Then we outgrew that church and needed more room, so the members raised more money and added on to the front of it in 1994.  That is the church you see today.”  I learned more but it will be published in a book, or online, for the 125th Anniversary event on October 11, 2015.  When asked if she had any words of wisdom, she said “Well, the greatest thing in life is the peace of mind you get from Christ, through trials and tribulations.  As for me at my age, kind words and ice water are all I need to be happy."

The above comments are a sample of what I learned on my Oral History Interviews.  Next week, you will get another sampling from one of the interviews.  Have a great week and enjoy the air conditioning and personal computer.  They are new inventions and, praise the Lord; I was born after these great inventions were made and produced.  Be thankful every day for what the Lord has made, and how He has assisted men in making.  I will be blogging Member Memories History Interviews over the next ten to twelve weeks.  I hope you enjoy their first-hand account of history.