The Ordainment of Cecil Baker Egerton

Dr. Fred Fernando Brown

First Baptist Church

Knoxville, Tennessee

Sunday, December 30, 1951

 

DR. STOKES:

                  At the direction of the church, a Council of Baptist Preachers met with Cecil Egerton this afternoon. I am going to ask the Clerk of our church, Mr. Russell Parrish, to read the report of that Council. Mr. Parrish:

Churches I have Loved (Most of the Time): Cloudy

Editor's Note: The following is an essay and recollection written by my father, Dr. Cecil Baker Egerton, of his first pastorate in Cloudy, Oklahoma, circa 1950.

I will never forget Cloudy. I learned so much there. I don’t know what the place is like now, but over a half century ago, it was a journey back in time to an America that existed long before I was born. Located on a ridge in the Kiamichi Mountains of Oklahoma, it was twenty-five miles from the nearest paved road. As a young man from the city of Knoxville [Tennessee] who was studying in a theological school in Fort Worth, Texas, going there was like using a time machine to visit a vanished world. The women still boiled their laundry in iron kettles on Monday. People drew water from their own wells. The younger kids attended a one-room schoolhouse, while the older kids rode a bus down to Rattan.

Moving Reflections from a Business Writer

 

In the summer of this nearly-spent year, my wife and I moved into our “forever home”: the one from which we intend to be carried in box or bag when that time comes (decades in the future, God willing). We’ll never move again. And it's a wonderful feeling.

Washing & Drying As It Was Meant to Be

Not long after we moved into our new (to us) house, our appliances began breaking down. It wasn't surprising. The previous owners had gutted our 1940 stone house in 1997, replacing all of the house’s systems, infrastructure, and appliances at that time. So it should be no surprise they were waiting to give up the ghost once we moved in 24 years later.

Remember Bonnie Sue

A reflection on the life and death of Bonnie Sue Egerton, my sister, from COVID-19