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Well, welcome to another episode of the Y ‘all the Crazy Ranch podcast.
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Today we’ve got a special treat for you. We’ve got my grandfather on the on the show today. He’s my grandfather on my mother’s side and he has lived a long great life and is going to share a lot of wisdom with us today that I think you guys will really enjoy. He’s going to share a part of his story, what it was like when he was growing up. He had a bunch of brothers and sisters. He’s going to talk about when he got married.
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He’s married for 71 years, isn’t that right, Pop? 71, yeah. 71 years. So there’s a lot we can learn from him to hit today. So I think you guys will really, really enjoy it. And I know you’ve put some thought into this, Pop. So where do you wanna start your story?
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Well, I wanted to start by saying that I love the Lord and I’m glad to be here with my grandson, Bronson. And I just wanna give my testimony to let you know what God
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has done in my life over the years. And I guess I’ll start with saying I was born the ninth child on my mother. And my father died when I was three years old. And my mother never remarried again. And she didn’t have an education or anything. And so what happened was she worked as a shear cropper. And she took milk cows and pulled corn and picked cotton and hold cotton for the people that owned the property.
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Mercy.
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And so she never remarried when my father died. And I was raised in a three room. I was raised in a three room. I was raised in a three room.
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shack, really it was a shack. And we had no inside plumbing whatsoever. We had to walk down to about a quarter of a mile to a cistern where we got our water. And we brought it up to the Oklahoma Grassfed Beef house and that’s what we used there. Wow, I didn’t know that. I didn’t know that. Yeah, and so we were on a, lived on the back part of the farm where the people that owned the farm had that little Oklahoma Grassfed Beef shack house. It was straight and it was one, two, three rooms. That’s all it was.
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And my mom, she worked hard on the farm. I’ve seen her come home in the fall with her dress stiff with cuckaburs where she’d pull corn and her hands were, but there wasn’t anything I could do about it. I was a kid.
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I was just three or four years old at that time. And so I was raised that way. And I said to myself, when I get old enough, I’m gonna make a living. I’m gonna make some money and take care of my mom.
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And so what happened was I got mixed up with the wrong people. My friends from school and grade school and all we got to be buddies and we started drinking white whiskey.
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Oh man.
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Yeah. That’s not good. And it was in a jar. And then we would watch the people where they hid the whiskey and then people come along to pick it up and buy it from them.
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Yeah, okay. Yes.
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Yeah. And so we didn’t go over and steal the.
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steal the jar and we started drinking and that’s where I went wrong and so I was drinking and living a bad life and when I graduated from the eighth grade I went to high school in Corinth, Mississippi.
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Yeah Mississippi.
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Yeah and so I went out for football and when I went out for football I made the team but I didn’t have that money to buy any football shoes and we didn’t have any money whatsoever and we had moved into this house in a different location and mom was
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working and trying to keep us going. And finally in the ninth grade I just had all I could take and I wanted to do something positive so I just lied about my age. That’s right. Yeah and I quit school in the ninth grade and I went enlisted in the military in the Air Force.
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How about that?
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Ninth grader going into the Air Force. Yeah so I was in the Air Force. So you were how old? I was 16 at that time, or 15 at that time.
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Yeah but you told them you were 18.
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Yeah. I added two or three years to my, and so.
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I started my life then in the military and got basic training. And after I got through with basic training, I had what I did after I, when I got in there, I had an allotment check sent to my mom from the military. And that helped her out, but she didn’t want me to do that, but I did it anyway.
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And so after I finished my basic training, they sent me to Illinois to another Air Force base to learn aircraft mechanics.
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they wanted me to be a mechanic, but that didn’t work out, because I couldn’t be a mechanic.
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I couldn’t see you being a mechanic.
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Yeah, I couldn’t be a mechanic. So what happened was, I tested out to be an administrative person, and I enjoyed that. So I took, started my education over again, and I learned and graduated in the administrative end of it. And so when I was working in the office then, in the orderly room and typing, learning to type, I typed. And so after I got through with that, well.
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my life changed. It was just, I was still not very good person. And so, so when I went to Illinois at Rand Toole Air Force Base, I was 16 or 17. And my brother lived in Gary, Indiana, a half brother. And so I went up on a weekend to visit him. And when I did, I met a young girl by the name of Kay. And
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We got to dating and I started dating her and we dated for three months.
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Okay.
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And she didn’t know how old I was. And so I started my marriage off with a lie. Which is not a good idea. That’s not a good idea. Not a good idea. Yeah. And so three months later, we were married. Okay. And only we dated three months and we got married. And she thought you were older. Yeah, she thought I was 18, 19. Of course, she graduated from high school and we waited until after she graduated from high school to get married. She was 18.
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And I told her I was 18 at Zura, but I wasn’t. And so everything started with a lie. And so things, we got married and we moved to Florida and they shipped me out to Florida and blah, blah, blah.
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And I was there working in administrative end and getting my Oklahoma Grassfed Beef education, my GED and all that. And I realized I needed a good education in order to survive. And so…
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things went good when we first got married. Everything went good. And so to make a long story real short, I got discharged. No, I went to Korea overseas. I went to Korea for a year on the 38th parallel. And I spent a year there. And anyway, I was drinking and gambling and my buddy, my friend.
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we opened up a blackjack game.
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I was gonna say, you were a card guy, if I remember correctly.
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So we opened up a blackjack game, and it didn’t last long, because we lost all of our money. That’s the way that goes, usually. And I was drinking pretty heavy, and I just got in all kind of trouble. So I didn’t say much to my mom about it. She would write me letters and stuff. But we were so poor, the poor called us poor. Man. And that was kind of, that was the way I was brought up.
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I didn’t have a father to discipline me and set an example for me. And mom did the best she could. But we went ahead and made four years in the military. And after I got from the military, with my education and everything, I got a job as a secretary. In a United States steel mill in Gary, Indiana. And I was in the office and doing all of the administrative work that I was used to doing. And Kay and I…
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we’re doing real well, for we loved each other and we’re getting along all right, but then I got bad and I started gambling and drinking and all that goes with it. And we were married for five years and then we had a daughter. And then Lisa, and then we had another daughter was Laura and that’s your mom.
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Which is my mom, yep.
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Yeah, and what happened was things just didn’t went from bad to worse and I was addicted to gambling and I was addicted to alcohol and
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And my wife was so wonderful and loving to me that she made my breakfast and supper and dinner and all that. And I was sitting at the kitchen table. I came home from a drunk. I got paid on Friday and I stayed out and drank and all that till Sunday. And I came home Sunday morning and Kay had breakfast for me. And I was sitting at the table and my three -year -old daughter at that time, Lisa, came up to me at the table and she said, Daddy.
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She said, what’s God’s phone number? And I said, what? And so I said, what do you want to know that for, Lisa? And she said, I want to call him and tell him how bad of a daddy you are. And that really got me. That tore me up on the inside. And so after that, I started going to church. No, let me go back. After, Kay and I later on separated.
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That’s right, you were telling us that last night.
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Yeah, we were separated and we like two hours.
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having our divorce finalized. And we got back together.
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Praise the Lord for that.
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Praise the Lord. And then after we got back together, we started going to church and I got saved. I asked the Lord to forgive me of all of the stuff I’ve done. I named them one by one to him and he forgave me of every sin I’d ever committed. And I felt so good about it and I felt relieved. Yes. And so what happened after that.
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It was a miracle, really. I was saved, and I was going to church, and I started teaching a youth class. How about that?
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That’s a big turnaround. Yeah, I had a transformation in my life.
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Yes. And once, one morning, after I was gloriously sanctified holy, I didn’t know Job from Job when I got saved, but I was filled with the Holy Spirit. He baptized me and took that sinful nature. I didn’t know what it was, but he took all that out of my heart and made me clean and pure on the inside. So I was so happy, and God was leading, and Kay was in church, Jesus got saved too, and my two daughters were in the little kids’ class.
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So one Sunday night in church, we were sitting there, no, Sunday morning. We were sitting in church and I told Kay, she sat in beside me, and I told Kay, I said, you know, God’s called me to preach. I bet she about fell over. She did. She said, as my wife always said, Bob, shut up.
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She’d tell you to shut up all the time.
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Yeah, she told me to shut up. And so, and I said, I said, no, he wants me to preach. He wants me to preach right now. And so I stood up and I testified in the church and I told the pastor he was getting ready to preach.
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and I told him that God had called me to preach and he said, boy, that’s great and we’ll pray about it and all that. And I told the preacher and I said, but he wants me to preach right now. And the preacher said, well, let me pray about that. And by doing that, my sister was in the church and she went to the ladies’ room and was regurgitating. I didn’t know this, but she told me later that she went in and she was regurgitating in there.
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She just about fainted when I told him. And so Kay, she just… Was this Edna Mae? Uh -huh.
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Was this Edna Mae? This is my sister Edna. Yeah. And so Kay…
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was stunned and everybody was silent when I told the pastor, but God wanted me to preach right now. And to make a long story short, he said, come on up and let’s hear what you want to say. And I preach my sermon. I don’t know what I preach. I didn’t have enough. I just did it.
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From the heart.
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Yeah, from my heart. And the people in the church just flooded the altar. And it was such a great motivation or transformation that had taken place in my life. Wow. And so after that, I quit my job.
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And I started to college at Olivet and Azarine University in Kankakee, Illinois. And I sold my Oklahoma Grassfed Beef house, moved down there, and I finished all of my ministerial obligations. And I took my first church in Orland Park, Illinois, suburb of Chicago, and I’ve been preaching now for…
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56 years I’ve been preaching. It’s gotten better and better. And God’s helped me and used me.
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And how many churches do you think you’ve pastored at?
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I’d say several. I’d say seven.
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Yeah, several.
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Yeah, seven churches. But when I had 56 years, we retired. And God used me all over the country. I’ve preached overseas. I’ve been in all that kind of stuff. And we retired. And so my wife…
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got sick, she got Alzheimer’s. And she passed away after 71 years of being married. She was the most precious thing after God saved both of us and got us straight and we had the most beautiful relationship that we could ever have. And as far as I know, I don’t ever remember her ever losing her temper or getting mad at me or, you know. She was just a beautiful wife. And 71 years.
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she passed away on November the 11th 19 or 2025.
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Yeah it’s about eight months ago or so.
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Eight months ago.
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Yes.
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And that’s one of the hardest things that I’ve ever done that God’s helped me and given me peace in my heart over this. I know she’s in heaven. Oh yeah. She’s in paradise.
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Yes.
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And I’m still going. I’m still preaching on Facebook. That’s right. God’s not done with you yet.
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Yeah.
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Right now at the church where I attend Texoma Cowboy Church in Wichita Falls, Texas.
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I moved in with my daughter, Lisa, and I live with her. And I started teaching the Bible study on Wednesday night, the pastor. And let me say this to you. 33 years ago this August, I married this pastor and his wife at a church I pastored. And now I’m down there in Wichita Falls, and he’s my pastor. How about that? Yeah. So anyway, I’ve been teaching on Wednesday nights, and I’ve been in the Gospel of John. People want to hear about John. I’ve been in the Gospel of John since December. And every Wednesday night we meet, and it’s just been a wonderful story.
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But I’m here to say this this morning. I’m proud the way God has touched my life and my wife’s life. And out of the two daughters, we’ve got five grandsons and you’re right in there. And I’ve got the best family anybody could ever have. I love all of my grandkids. We’ve got five grandkids. And we’ve got 17 great grandchildren. And I’m the happiest guy that I know. And God’s blessed me in that area. And I can’t emphasize this enough. It all happened.
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60 years ago when I realized that I was a sinner, I was lost, I was evil, I was trying to do everything in the world and God changed my life and he transformed me in my thinking and all of that and so now I’ve been helping people for 56 years and I’m not through yet.
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Not through. You know we talk a lot on on the show about
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The importance of Christ being your foundation in life. Yeah, and in Having a worldview looking through the biblical, you know scriptural Christ centered worldview and how if you build your life from there up Not that make makes it things are easy but it it makes life a whole lot better I mean a whole lot better. Yeah doesn’t mean you’re not gonna have some struggles Oh, you’re always gonna have but when you don’t have Christ at the foundation and that’s that’s your rock that you build on The rest of your life tends to it can fall apart, you know, like you were describing yours Yes, and right and when he when you made that change
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everything changed and so why don’t you tell us maybe something that comes to your mind not many people are married for 71 years yes when you guys made your covenant till death do you part yes you actually did it yes I did right and so what would you say is some good advice for people to encourage them on how they can make it 71 years or till death do you part just get to Jesus first that’s first that’s first you get your sins under his blood and let him transform your life
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and then you do what the Bible says. And you read the Bible and learn about the Bible. And one of the things about the Gospel that John is, and the reason he wrote the, John wrote the Gospel, Jesus is choosing his disciples and training them and telling them how to live, what to do. And if we live the life of the Bible, it transforms our marriages, our lives, our kids. And that’s the solution to every situation. You’re gonna have problems, I’ve had all kind of Oklahoma Grassfed Beef problems. But God is a problem solver. Amen to that. Yes, and God touches lives.
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I’m the happiest guy I know. Yes. And because Jesus controls my heart and life. Yes. And I wouldn’t trade this life for nothing. You know. So I’d say serve the Lord and live for the Lord and not the world. I don’t want anything from the world. I want God more than anything in the world.
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That’s a powerful thing, you know, and who designed marriage?
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God did.
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God did. So it would be smart to try to build your life around the principles and the teachings and follow God because he’s the one that designed marriage.
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Amen.
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If you’re trying to do it the world’s way outside of the designer.
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That’s a lot harder. That’s a lot more difficult. And you talked about staying in the Word. I remember coming over to your guys’ Oklahoma Grassfed Beef house as a little kid and I remember seeing grandma reading her Bible and I remember seeing colorful underlines in it and writings and then I obviously see you read yours and you preach on Sundays and all growing up, I would see you and her at different moments, reading your Bibles. And I think from what you just said, I got to witness you guys actually living that out. And that’s powerful, yeah.
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Well, one of the things that most people don’t understand is the average person maybe reads their Bible five minutes a day.
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You gotta spend time with the Lord.
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You have to.
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You gotta get to know Jesus. And he says in his word, if you love me, you’ll keep my command, my words. And as long as we keep the word of God and follow him, we’re gonna succeed.
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Amen.
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About everything, so.
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That’s right. And it might look different from what we have in mind, but it’ll all work according to his plan.
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He’ll guide us through life. He’s got a plan for our life, every life. If you’re breathing this morning, God has a plan for your life. And if you will allow him to…
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lead your life and follow his plan, you’ll be successful in life and be the happiest people on this earth.
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Yes, I got another question for you. Okay. What is it like, cause you’re how old, Pop? I’m 88 years old. So we’re having a cousin’s camp out this weekend on the ranch. And we invited his, you know, all the grandkids, my cousins, you know, and their kids. And we’re just spending a couple of days on the ranch. This afternoon, we’re going to go fishing. We’re going to camp out. We’re going to work some cows, that kind of thing. And last night we were all sitting around outside talking, kids were playing.
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How does it feel being 88 years old and looking at your lineage and being around them all? What is that feeling like?
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It’s exhilarating to me. I love those great grandkids and I enjoy and thank God for the privilege of letting me experience their love and kindness and watching them play and watching them do things. And I thank God for people, for my grandson, you and my other grand, every one of my grandchildren, there’s five of them, they’re all saved. That’s right. And then we’ve got one that’s a preacher. That’s right, Jonathan. And so I felt very…
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I really felt very pleased and excited and honored to be there last night and watching those kids play. And I thank the Lord that he’s allowing me to be here to experience my great grandkids too. And my grandkids, I love you guys. And that’s just the way it is. It’s a peaceful thing. I bet. Yeah, we love each other.
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Yes. And that’s what it’s all about, really. And just think, if God wouldn’t have made that change in your life 60 -something years ago, you probably wouldn’t be here and experiencing what it is today.
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I wouldn’t be here. I’d be dead. Right. As a matter of fact, I…
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I was in a bar and drinking, and I got into a fight. And this guy that worked in the bar came over and put a pistol to my head and he cocked a hammer and he said, I’m gonna blow your brains out. And he was cussing and all that. And I had drank enough to say, go ahead. And all he had to do was somebody bump him or pull him. I think about that a lot. I would have been in hell today if it hadn’t been for that. Yeah, I came close. I’ve been…
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close, very much. But before I, after I met Christ, everything so changed, I didn’t have those kind of people around me anymore. I had Christian people around me, prayed for me, loved me, and encouraged me.
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Well, that makes all the difference. You know, one of the principles we live by is, you know, some words of advice that you’re the sum of the five people you spend the most time around. Well, it’s hard to live a good life Christian walk if you don’t hang around fellow Christians.
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Amen.
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That doesn’t, you have to spend time with other folks too and help lead them to the Lord. But if you’re hanging around bars or people you shouldn’t be all the time, and you think that you can live a different way than those folks.
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That’s hard to do. You know, another saying is is like if you hang around dogs, you’ll wind up with fleas That’s just the way it is, you know, so It’s hard to live.
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Otherwise, you know, yeah, one of the thing that bothers me today is people Professing to be Christians. Yes goes into the gambling casinos Social drinking and all that. Yes, that’s not biblical that bothered me. That’s why I’m still preaching Why you still got some fire?
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I got fire in me You remember a zig -ziggler?
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Yeah, remember zig -ziggler good author motivational guy he’s got a he was doing a speaking tour one time and
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You know people I’m sure you hear it too. They say they don’t go to church because The church is full of hypocrites. Yeah, right. Well, the thing is we’re all sinners Yeah, right, and we’re all gonna make mistakes. It’s a continual walk You don’t you don’t get saved and now you live a perfect life, right? But you know, people say that a lot I’m not gonna go to church because those people are whatever and they’re hypocrites and I remember Zig Ziglar saying well That’s alright. We got room for one more You know, it’s like that’s a good way to look at it sometimes people get too You know, they almost damage themselves because they don’t want to be a part because there’s people that you know Make mistakes and see one of the things we need to understand is Jesus Made us what he he became Our Savior and our Lord and
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He made us what he is. And we’re to be like Jesus, the light of the world, the salt of the earth. And if once we do that and be true blue Christians, God’s gonna work miracles.
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That’s, yes, and we have to have him work it because we can’t do it on our own.
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We can’t do it on our own.
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Not for our glory or our abilities. It’s definitely all him.
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Yeah. Yeah. It’s all God, it’s Jesus. I don’t want anything but Jesus.
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That’s good.
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And that’s it.
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Well, is there any last words you would like to say?
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I’d like to say that my prayer is that my entire family.
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And that means the five grandkids and all of my great grandkids. Yes will grow and be Christians and love Jesus and we can all Rejoice when we get to heaven amen to that amen. Yeah, that’s what I’m looking forward to Well, that’s special pop.
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We’ve enjoyed having you on today And I hope you all enjoyed his story and his testimony and hopefully that’s an encouragement to somebody you might have a family life that’s not in a good spot or a family history that hasn’t been well and There’s some encouragement that you can be the one to change your family tree from here on out Amen, you know and with God’s help you can do it
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and he is living proof of that and I’m very thankful for him and the influence he’s had on our lives.
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Thank you very much.
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Yes, well until next time have a good one.