STORY OF CHESTER ARTHUR RAYMOND MC CLURE

This is the story as pieced together by what I was told by daddy and what he told Dean. Daddy left the farm in Illinois to go to Chicago and went to work for Sears. He must have been running from God about preaching at this time. We don’t know how old he was when he went to Chicago or how long he was there. All he told both of us was that it wasn’t long before his co-workers at Sears were calling him “preacher.” When the St. Valentine Day’s massacre occurred in 1929, he decided it was time to get out of Chicago. I don’t know how he learned about Southwest Baptist College in Bolivar, MO. But they had an Academy where Daddy could get his High School education and then go on to college. Daddy was born in 1910, so he was 19 at this time and I understood that he did not have any high school education at this time. However, he may have had some before this. We don’t know. Dr. Courts Redford was the president of SBC at this time and took a liking to Daddy and assured him that there would be funds for him to go to school. Mother was born in 1911. She graduated from High School in Stella, MO. She came from a family of 7 children. Her mother died in childbirth of the last child and mother was the oldest daughter, so she had to take over a lot of the cooking, etc. of the family. Her aunt, who was a widow, came to live with them and help take care of the family. Mother’s father was a rural mail carrier and they had a small farm – animals, garden, etc. – not crops. But it was important to him for his children to go to college – even the girls. Six of the seven went to SBC. So mother graduated from High School in 1929 and went to SBC the following fall. So she and daddy met at SBC in about 1929-30. Daddy completed his High School work and started college. Mother completed her college work in 1931 and they were married right after she graduated. They got married at Mother’s home at Stella, MO. And then Grandpa took them to Joplin, MO and put them on the train for Illinois to my dad’s parents, who mother had never met, to live with them. I can’t imagine what that was like! Mother was a “city” girl compared to the farm life of the McClures. She obviously got along well with Grandpa and Grandma McClure and Aunt Helen and Uncle Art Wollerman. But she did not get along with Aunt Hazel. I had a hard time trying to figure this out until I took a good look at the pictures of Mother in her college yearbook. Mother made all of her own clothes. But looking at the pictures, they show her with a current, modern hairstyle and flapper-type dresses out of stylish materials. I am sure that did not set well with the farm type of clothes, etc. of Aunt Hazel. Mother and Daddy lived with Grandma and Grandpa McClure until after Dot was born in 1933. Sometime after this, they returned to Bolivar for daddy to attend college. I don’t know much about this period but daddy did graduate from SBC and then he was pastor of a small church at located on what now is Camp Crowder. He left there right before I was born and became pastor at Carterville. This was when I was born, in 1938. I don’t know how long we were there and then he became pastor at Miller, MO. I just vaguely have a few memories of Miller.

When I was about 4 or so, we moved to Shawnee, OK for Mother and Daddy to continue their education at Oklahoma Baptist University. The war was going on at this time and there were no male students in the dorm, so they allowed us to live in the boys dorm. I have a few memories of this but not much. We moved into a duplex across the street from the campus then and I do remember a lot about this. The boys that were in the military practiced in the field behind our house and we used to go stand at the fence and watch them. Mother took in ironing and Daddy worked for maintenance on campus. He was pastor of several small part-time churches during this time also. I started school in Shawnee when I was 5 – in the first grade, no kindergartens back then! Daddy graduated from OBU and Mother took classes and almost graduated. All she lacked was five hours of foreign

language. Daddy then took a church in Terral, Oklahoma, that was right on the line between Oklahoma and Texas. We lived in a house with a tin roof right in town. Daddy started commuting to Fort Worth to attend Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He would come home on weekends and preach and then go back on Monday to Fort Worth. I have no idea where he lived there unless he stayed in the dorm. Mother would always bake rolls on Friday and have a big meal for when Daddy came home.

Daddy graduated from SWBTS and came home to become a full-time pastor. The church moved a house onto the lot adjoining the church. It had two bedrooms, living room , dining room and kitchen. It also had an upstairs under the slanting roof. I thought life was good here. We were just across the street from the school, and even though their rules said I had to be 6 before I could start school, the first grade teacher was a member of the church and she let me come on to school and then petitioned the board to let her promote me to the second grade. We had a garage with a wash room attached behind it – that was the proverbial “wood shed” and I got taken

there many times! When I was eight, Kay was born. One member of the church felt sorry for me since I was having to give up my position as baby of the family, and he brought me a puppy. I enjoyed my puppy a lot – but so did Daddy! However, the deacon that lived behind us had chickens and my puppy discovered the chickens so Daddy had to shoot my dog! During my second

grade I had to have my tonsils out and then my appendix. I had to spend quite a bit of time in the hospital. I think the doctor was

paid for with watermelons and peaches from our deacon behind us. I then got the measles and was able to go to school the last few days. Luckily they passed me on to the third grade.

We lived in Terral for five years and then Daddy felt called to a church in Sweet Springs, MO. This is located between Sedalia and Kansas City. We had a great big house. Dot and I had separate bedrooms and Daddy had an

“office”, also. I was in 5th grade when we moved here so Dot was in the 10th grade. This was right before Thanksgiving of 1949. Grandma McClure died along about this time. Dot graduated from High School in 1951. She received an engagement ring from young man a little older than she was. Mother did not like him. Dot went on making plans to go to Southwest Baptist College and gave the ring back before she left. She graduated from SBC in 1953 and went on to OBU.

In January, 1955, in the middle of my junior year of High School, where I was active in a lot of different activities, in a town of 1500 people, my Daddy felt God calling him to Joplin, MO where the High School had 1500 students! I had a terrible time adjusting to that! Daddy became the pastor of Joplin Heights Baptist Church. I would not have made it if it hadn’t been for some really good teachers that encouraged me. I was extremely timid back then. Dot graduated in 1955 from OBU. She had her accounting degree and they hired her to become the chief accountant for OBU, so she stayed in Shawnee. I met Dean at the beginning of my senior year of High School. When I graduated, I wanted to stay home and go to Junior College. But Mother and Daddy said NO. I was to be shipped off to Shawnee to live with Dot and go to OBU. So Dean and I broke it off and I went to Shawnee in July to work for Dot in the accounting office and start college in September. In the winter, Mother was diagnosed with cancer – a spot on her leg. So she had to have surgery and some skin grafting, etc. Dot quit her job at OBU and moved back home to help take care of Mother. I had to move into the dorm then for second semester. Dean and I dated other people during this time but in April when I came home for the weekend, we decided to pick out my rings. We tried all weekend to talk to Daddy but he was always busy so Dean had to talk to him by himself after I went back to school. Daddy left then to go to Washington State for a revival and I still didn’t get to talk to him! He wrote me while he was in Washington and gave his blessing for us to get married. After Mother got well, Dot went to work for a real estate company

in Joplin. The church honored Mother and Daddy with a picnic at the park and very beautiful silver tray and tea service for their 25th wedding anniversary in June, 1956 When I came home when the semester was over, I got my ring in June and we were married in September, 1957. Daddy was very busy during all of this. He was president of SBC Alumni Association. He held revivals, he visited a lot. and especially worked with the youth. He was very active in Baptist Hill. He and Mother were always in charge of registration for the camp. In 1959, Pam was born so Mother and Daddy became grandparents for the first time. Right after, Dot married the young man she was engaged to after High School. His name was Russell Kite. They lived in Kansas City. Dot knew at the time they got married that he had cancer, but Russell did not know it. He lived three months. Dot lived in Kansas City and worked for People to People for awhile and then she felt like she had to make a new start somewhere. That’s how she ended up in New Orleans.

1960 Daddy felt called to become Superintendent of Missions for Shoal Creek Baptist Association in Neosho, MO. So they moved to Neosho. This was quite different from what he was used to doing. The office was attached to the house so he and Mother worked together quite a bit. In this position, he was sort of a pastor to the pastors of the churches in this association. He helped churches find pastors, he listened to problems and gave advice when needed. It was a busy life but different. They visited all the churches, so they were on the road a lot. In 1962 our son, Russ, was born.

In 1964, Dean decided to go to college. So we moved from Joplin to Bolivar, MO, where he enrolled in college at Southwest Baptist College. Dean worked on maintenance and I worked in the business office. We had a good time even though we didn’t have any money. We made some good friends that are still friends today. The college became a University while we were there. Kay graduated from High School in Neosho and went to Memphis Tennessee, for Nurse’s training at Baptist Memorial Hospital. While Dean was in school, Pam had

an emergency appendectomy and we called mother and daddy and told them we were taking her to Springfield to the hospital and we said we would call them as soon as we knew something. We were 25 miles from Springfield and they were 75 miles away. They beat us to the hospital! They used to show up with a picnic supper and then go back home. They just had to see those grandkids! In 1964, Dot adopted a little boy, Raymond. She drove all the way up to Missouri by herself with Raymond so we could see him. 1n 1966 Daddy had a severe heart attack. We didn’t think he was going to make it. After that we had to make rush trips to Neosho quite often. So when Dean was offered a job with Crowder College as maintenance man and boys dorm parents, we jumped at the chance so we would be closer to the folks. Daddy was not very healthy after this so I started working for him and Mother worked closely with us. Kay graduated from nursing school in 1967. She came home to help out with Daddy. She got a job at the hospital in Neosho. She was working there when our son, Scott was born in 1967. Kay married Steven Viles that August. They were stationed in North Carolina at first and then he was transferred to Hawaii. When Daddy got real bad, they came home and helped with taking care of Daddy. Daddy lived until May, 1969. Kay stayed on and got a job at the hospital to make enough money to go back to Hawaii. Steve went back right after the funeral. When Kay went back to Hawaii, Mother went back with her for two weeks. I was pregnant with Tim when daddy died. Because Mother and I had worked so closely with him, the association allowed Mother to live in the house and we completed the work that Daddy had started for next several months. Then mother had to find a place to move. Tim was born in November, 1969. Right after Tim was born, Mother went to New Orleans to help Dot. She was marrying a man by the name of Ken Reeves. Since Daddy had not been in Social Security long enough, Mother could only draw from his retirement account and that was $90.00 a month. Of course, she could not live on that so she moved to Bridgeton, MO, a suburb of St. Louis, to work as a child care worker with the MO Baptist Children’s Home. In March, she started trying to get us to move up there, also. In May, we had an interview for a position with the Children’s Home in Gray Summit,. MO, as child care workers and Dean would work on their farm. We accepted this position and moved to Gray Summit, June 10, 1970. This lasted a year, because we had four kids of our own and they kept giving up older kids that we didn’t have a clue how to handle. We were given one boy, Jim, age 13, that God seemed to tell us that we needed, to make our family complete. So we adopted him. He added a whole new dimension to our lives since he liked football and we hardly knew what one looked like! He also liked other sports. After our year with the Children’s Home, Dean went to work with the local lumber yard and I became secretary for First Baptist Church, Gray Summit. I stayed in this position until 1975 when Jim started college and Tim started kindergarten. Dean stayed at the lumber yard until 1978 when Pam graduated from High School. We bought the house where we live now, in the fall, 1978 when Pam went to college. Russ graduated from High School in 1980 and enrolled in Southwest Baptist University in the fall. So we had Jim going to Missouri Valley College in Marshall, MO, Pam in Missouri Baptist College in Creve Coeur, Mo and Russ in Southwest Baptist College, Bolivar, MO all at the same time! At home we still had Scott in High School and Tim in Jr. High.

Kay and Steve came home from Hawaii and he got out of service. They lived in Ohio and Steve went to school. Nathan was born in 1971. and Jeremy was born in 1972. After Steve graduated from College, they moved to Kansas City, MO where Steve enrolled in Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Kay continued to work as a nurse. Carrie was born in 1978. Jim graduated from College in 1980. Pam graduated in 1982. Russ graduated from college in 1985, Scott graduated from High School in 1985. Jim went out to Colorado to “make his fortune.” Pam got a job teaching school in a little town up north, Russ went to Texas to go to North Texas State University to get his master’s in trombone performance. When Steve graduated from the Seminary; they moved to Iowa, where he was pastor of a church. He wanted to become a chaplain in the service and needed experience as a pastor first. Kay continued to work as a nurse. Jim did not make his fortune in Colorado so he came back home and got a job with our school district as truant officer. He married Faye in 1986. Pam changed from up north to a small school in Raymondville, MO. Scott went to Missouri Baptist College for two years,. Then he transferred to Missouri Southern University in Joplin, Mo, the same year that Tim graduated from High School in 1988 and enrolled in Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, MO. Russ married Valarie in Texas, in 1988. Our first grandchild, Tiffany Lynn was born in 1986 and our second, Amy Lee, was born in 1989, to Jim and Faye. By this time both Jim and Pam were teaching in our school district. Some time about this time, Dot divorced Ken. She had her own CPA business. Her son, Raymond, graduated from High School in 1982 and went to Southern Mississippi University in Hattiesburg, MS. Kay’s family lived in Florida. Nathan graduated in 1990 and enrolled in Northwestern in Chicago, IL. Jeremy graduated in 1992. About this time, Kay and Steve divorced. Raymond graduated and took a job in Meridan, MS. Then he went back to Southern Miss in the alumni office. While he was here, he met and married Linda. Tim married Sandra before their senior year of college, August, 1991. Pam had taken the position of supervisor of Gifted Education in the state office of the Department of Education. So she had moved to Jefferson City, our state capital. She traveled all over the state. She met Rick Dubuque that lived a few miles from us while she lived in Jefferson City and they were married in June, 1992. Scott lived in Neosho after he graduated from MO Southern and he was active in his church and went to camp with the youth. He met Marjorie at camp and they were married in July, 1993. Nathan graduated from Northwestern and he and his girl friend went to North Texas State to get their masters. Nathan married Heather. Nathan taught school and several other things but none of them jelled. We moved Kay and Carrie up here when Carrie was getting ready to start High School. Jeremy moved up here a short time later. He went to Northwest Missouri State and when he graduated, he got a job in Iowa with the government. He met Jill in Iowa and they got married. Shortly after this, Nathan and Heather divorced. Carrie graduated from High School, went a semester or so to college and decided that was not for her. But she was able to get an excellent job with a travel agency in Chicago. She did that for awhile and then ended up in Florida working for a travel agency with an excellent job. Meanwhile, Kay lived in Fenton, MO not far from us, working as a nurse in a local hospital. Dot was still living in New Orleans and running her CPA firm. I went down and helped her during tax season a couple of years. The last year, I went, she had been diagnosed with breast cancer in December right after she had turned 65 in November. While I was there she finished her radiation which she chose over chemo because it wouldn’t make her sick and she could keep working. When I left to come home, I knew she wasn’t doing well. It was Easter weekend and Raymond and Linda had come down for the weekend. Linda was pregnant with their first baby. Dot got very ill during the next 2 weeks and died just a few weeks after I left her. She never got to see her first grandchild. Now she has three: Ashley, 13; Brandon, 10; and Leslie, 6. Kay rather suddenly developed kidney failure in 2010, and had to go on dialysis. She was unable to work so she had to go on disability. Carrie came up and lived with her for a while and then they moved to Florida, where Carrie lived. Kay stayed there for awhile and then she moved to McKinney, Texas. This is close to where Nathan and his wife, Holly, live. That is where she is now. She has two grandchildren. Jeremy has

Martin and Nathan have Oliver. She turned 65 in December and was diagnosed with breast cancer. She chose a double mastectomy and is now having chemo. I turned 65 in December, 2003. In July, 2004, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I had a lumpectomy and radiation and so far all is well. Strange, don’t you think? Well, I have told you how many grandchildren the other two have but I missed out on mine. This has been really hard to keep all of us going at the same time! I told you about the first two granddaughters we have. Pam married Rick that had three children and then they had a girl, Caralyn Grace, born in 1994. They also have given us, Ryan, Kristin and Sarah. All of these are very much “ours”! Ryan turned 32 in February. He is an Army recruiter stationed in Kansas. He and Julia have Emma, age 4 and Jaxson, age 1. Kristin, 29 is married to Nathan Carter. They are both CPA’s. Kristin is pregnant with their first – due in July. Sarah, 24 is married to Sam Shubkagel. They have Jacob, age 5 and Gabrielle, age 1. Russ & Valarie have two girls, ages 10, Melody and Harmony. Scott and Marjorie have two: Ella, age 13 and Caleb 10 in June. Tim and Sandra have two: Jonathan, age 13 and Addison, age 9. So we have 12 grandchildren and the 5th great-grandchild is on the way. Mother lived to see Jim’s two and Pam’s four. She died at age 85 in 1996. Dot died in 1999. Well, I think that about tells the story of C. A. McClure. I have always been sorry that he didn’t get to see what he started! There are now 31 in our family (Dean & I). I forgot to mention that I also had kidney failure and went on dialysis after Kay did. I didn’t go on dialysis until January, 2011. I kept working until May, 2013, part-time only! So, all of our family added together – the C.A. McClure family totals 45 with the new one on the way. These are the last pictures that they had taken before daddy died. They are both now buried in Neosho Memorial Park in Neosho, Missouri.