Presented to my Daddy three to four years before he passed away December 26, 2005 very early morning hours before sunrise in The Hopkins County Nursing Home in Sulphur Springs,Texas.
The words and actions he taught me shaped my life and established my values more than any else that I have met. So to him I say, I love you and thank you for being my Father on this earth that I was blessed to call "My Daddy”. I have laughed much with My Daddy and still love to laugh and smile when I think of him.
The Ten Commandments and the principals of living fairly among the world’s citizens that I learned in Sunday school and from my Daddy are my treasure. He had many sayings and the things he taught me are priceless. He said, “treat people like you want to be treated, when you shake a man’s hand always look him in the eye, call a spade a spade. If you give a man your word there was no backing out on it or changing the deal. Stick with your word it is your bond.
A man that will lie to you will steal from you also. When you are doing something there is always a better way to do it. If you are going to do something do your best to do it right the first time.
One is as happy as one can imagine when the interest is high about doing something and you can figure out how to do it. But when your interest is low you can figure out how not to do it. You only need one reason not to do it.
Be a positive thinker and achieve better results, and expect the best and give your best. Just do the right thing and that is all you can do” and he My Daddy was all of this and more.
My Daddy was born to Elijah Merrell and Edith Huie. He was raised on a farm just outside of Sulphur Springs, Hopkins County, Texas by his parents and with his older brother Aubrey and his older sister Elneda. He was the baby and his mother used to tell that he was still nursing when he was three and a half years old. I always thought that was funny. If the family had company he would call out from behind the kitchen door, “Maw, Maw, I want some syrup and butter in the kitchen”. I can just see him old enough that he should be a bit embarrassed but his hunger pangs strong enough to make him ask for his mother in private.
He loved animals especially horses. He told me that he rode a mule or horse to school if he was lucky but often found himself walking with this brother and sister to school four miles even in the snow, with his lunch in a syrup bucket. He always loved syrup and butter in the kitchen ;-)
My Daddy was many things a horseman, a farmer, a rancher, a veteran, a college graduate, a school teacher, a draftsman, a engineer, a salesman, a sales manager and in business for himself. He liked selling things and was a natural at selling things like cars, horses, cattle, and hay. Hey, I believe he could of sold anything. I heard he was in a bar in Hawaii with his navy buddies and sold the Brooklyn Bridge (and he was not even from Brooklyn) ;-) smile
He was patient willing to teach if there was a need to show someone how to do something better. He had little to no patience with dishonesty, undisciplined behavior, excuses for being late. He was truly a military trained man that was a cowboy, sailor with much worldly experience.
He taught me so many physical things like ….. living, fishing, hunting, horsemanship, welding, metal fabrication, rebuilding motors in cars pickups tractors, electrical, plumbing, carpentry, concrete work, building barns, remolding houses, farming, ranching, bookkeeping, and how to keep smiling and keep thinking positive even in the heat of the battle.
My Daddy was a veteran of World War ll and the Korea war. Joining at 17 years old because he had told the Navy recruiter he was born September 28, 1922 but in fact he was born April 14, 1923. He did his basic training for the Navy in California. The Navy took this raw bone country boy and put him with the crew of the USS California. He was in his bunk reading a newspaper the morning when the Japanese planes flew over Pear Harbor and attacked the U.S. ships and harbor on December 7, 1941.
The USS California took two torpedoes bombs from the Japanese warplanes but it did not sink the ship only because it hit bottom in the harbor and was restored to a much improved vessel.
Many men and women died that day. My Daddy was spared and I am grateful. Three men were saved because he was able to open a lower hatch door and they escaped the rising water from the lower deck that had been damaged caused by one of the torpedoes. Others ran from the fires on the deck and the ship and jumped into the water. But fire was burning on top of the water from the oil and fuel that had been spilled. My Daddy freed himself from the burning ship by grabbing a cable that was used to dock the ship and walked hand over hand toward the dock and then dropped into a whaleboat and got to shore and found safety.
Another narrow escape with his life was August 9, 1942. He was a crewmember of the USS Astoria CA-34 in the Battle of Savo Island, Solomon Islands. 1,077 U.S. Service men were killed by the Japanese in this battle. The Astoria was one of four heavy cruisers sunk in the battle. On the list of survivors from the sinking, there is my father on the list compiled aboard the attack transport USS President Jackson APA-18. He was fished out of the water or transferred off the sinking cruiser by a destroyer, but this ship is the one that he ended up on. It took him out of the area and back to Noumea, New Caledonia aboard the attack transport USS President Jackson APA-18 . Note that this event is referenced in the following listing from Wikipedia, as the President Jackson was crowded with survivors from this battle: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_President_Jackson_(APA-18)
Brent Jones Historian and web site builder http://www.ussastoria.org/
Photo of the Astoria the day before it was sunk by the Japanese August 9, 1942
Photo Astoria CA-34 the day before it sank
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Battle of Savo Island Part of the Pacific Theater of World War II. Date August 8–9, 1942 Location Vicinity of Savo Island, Solomon Islands 9°8′0″S 159°49′0″ECoordinates: 9°8′0″S 159°49′0″E
Result Japanese victory
Belligerents United States Australia Empire of Japan Commanders Richmond K. Turner(USN) Victor Crutchley (RN) Isoroku Yamamoto(IJN) Gunichi Mikawa (IJN)
U.S. Casualties and losses 4 heavy cruisers sunk, 1 heavy cruiser damaged, 2 destroyers damaged, 1,077 killed U.S. Navy personal.
58 killed Japanese Navy personal.
There are several detailed accounts of the Savo Island action to be found.
Here are a couple: Battle-Savo-Island and another account will be published by Jim Hornfischer, a WWII history author with several prominent books to his name.
It always seemed to me that it was hard for my Daddy to speak of the horror he had witnessed first hand because of the many dead friends and crewmembers he had seen killed. War was one story; and then there was this story of the two gunners working together. One young man was killed by a falling Japanese bomb hitting him in the top of the head dropping into the lower decks of the ship. The bomb did not explode (a dummy –made in Japan) and the other sailor still standing on the other side of the big gun looking into the big hole in the ship. One man lived and the other killed by the enemy.
Now, my Daddy and my mother met in San Diego or some place close in Southern California near or after the end of the war WWII. My mom and Dad found each other again in California. My mother was working in a garment factory making clothing for the soldiers and sailors in California, meets someone from the same hometown. Then they were married January 11, 1946. To use the G.I bill my Daddy and new bride came to Commerce, Texas, Hunt County, just 50 miles northeast of Dallas.
East Texas State Teachers College back in those days, but now is a part of Texas A&M University. My Daddy also worked at his brother’s full service gas station. His only brother Aubrey Merrell or as he would call him ‘Aub’ also was a black land cotton farmer, mechanic, husband, and daddy. He did pass away at the young age of 42 from a heart attack. His wife, my Aunt Ruth, and his children were Dale Merrell, James Merrell, Delores Merrell, Margaret Merrell and Shirley Merrell are my first cousins.
My Daddy did finish his college and first his first born; Barry came 1947, then Jayne 1949, and later Monty 1955, and Timmy 1957. We were blessed with a normal middle class lifestyle. He provided a beautiful home taking good care of his family and kept us all well dressed. He always loved his cowboy boots and cowboy hat 20x.
1950 -1953 Korean War My Daddy was called again and again back on a ship but my details of the length of time away was about one year if my memory is correct. This was before I was born. We need ongoing family historians. To get the details right.
I find life is interesting; my Daddy struggled thru those years of college and taught school one year in San Antonio as a drafting teacher. Then he moved his family to Dallas County and worked as a method engineer at one of the aircraft builders in Grand Prairie. He would always tell the story of my Uncle Jack Stubblefield (my mothers oldest brother). He said Jack would come by on Friday night after work to my mom and dads place waving his pay check in front my Daddy. Now they all said my Uncle Jack was mister personality and could sell anything, but selling cars was hot in Grand Prairie at Johnson Chevrolet. Uncle Jack was making a lot more money and my Daddy joined the sales force and soon became sales manager. Uncle Jack soon left Dallas for Houston, Texas and started Jack Stubblefield Used Cars and was the first in Houston to do the TV ads 'I want to sell you are Car" like Art Grinnel used to do on TV ads in the Dallas Market. He was a roaring success in business but ended by heart attack at the age of 39 in a Houston hospital in 1963. My Daddy and Uncle Jack were always the best of friends and brothers-in-law.
Anyone who worked with my Daddy would tell you that he was on time, extremely disciplined and an intense hard worker going over and above the call of duty. I never knew anyone who did not like my Daddy. This loveable Mr. Personality was someone everybody loved and looked up to. He was just fun to be around. Always laughing, cutting up and telling jokes was his way to be the center of attention. I remember he could tell jokes for two hours riding in the car and did many times. He would tell one joke and it would make him think of another one. He would say, you may have heard this joke before but I want to hear it again myself. I would eagerly agree and I enjoyed his joke telling, I was amused.
Driving new cars and with a pocket full of money. Frigidaire’s, Maytags, English Ford (a bay color mare with black legs) the race horse he bought other mares that he added including Powder Maid (a pallimino mare the mother of Sweet Baby and Father a Grandson of Cutter Bill the world champion cutting horse) more mares and started breeding them to the Sons of Three Bar stallions, second new home and a color TV 1960. We were the first that I new on the block watching a RCA color TV. I remember when he walked in the door with it and set it up with rabbit ears and all ……. Oh, Lord thank you for buying me that color TV…….. dialing for dollars is trying to call me ………….. Bonanza in color so cool …….
1960 must have been a good year, my Daddy buys the first 356 acres and names it the The Bar Jay Ranch, his beloved, ranch. Buying cross bred beef cows, Registered Hereford (whitefaced bulls) from the Van Winkle Ranch and Registered Black Brangus bulls of top genetics, from the Riverby Ranch near the Red River in Honey Grove, Fannin County, Texas on the border with Oklahoma.
Living the dream of the Bonanza and my three sons - except live from East Texas ranching on the Hopkins County and Franklin County line. South of the Sulphur River and just north of White oak bottom, Boggie Creek only ten miles to the east is where the bigfoot tracks and bigfoot was last seen. So far back in the woods that they had to pump in the sunshine, good honest hard working people of good morals they taught me in Sunday School who made the sunshine and we also knew who made the moonshine ;-) smile
1960-1970 he was building barns, busting bronks, ranching, and the sales manager selling cars at Hine Pontiac and Van Winkle near downtown. Must have been good years for my Daddy. We worked and played during those years on the ranch and did help to put the new fence around the Bar Jay Ranch just after he bought the place. We three sons, Barry, Monty and Tim spent many weekends and summers working (and playing) on the Bar Jay Ranch. We enjoyed the horses, motorcycles and learning to drive the tractor, hay pickup (I was 6 years old). Hunting and fishing. We loved the freedom to be boys and never at the time knew how to appreciate what we had to experience.
1962 December 25 Christmas morning, Timothy Jay, my baby brother and I woke and find a Lionel train mounted on a green painted plywood fixed with little trees and all the décor, new BB guns, a Union solder uniform for Tim and a Confederate uniform for me. My Daddy had us dressed up in our uniforms with BB guns (rifles) on our shoulders marching us around and around the house. He was talking to us rather gruff like a drill sergeant. After several minutes of the march my little brother turned to my Daddy and said, “Daddy I don’t want to join the Army I just want to stay home”. We all got a good laugh, Timmy was always saying something funny he was the family clown as a child. Well he is still funny looking to me, he's my lit'l brother.
1971 April, The Bar Jay moved into the north pastures dairy cows black and white ones called Holstein. All tagged with black and with tags there was number, one, two, number ninety-five and some of the cows I after a number of years being the cow man in the family, I communicated with cows to the point that I could call there name ‘NINETY-FIVE’ …… ‘NINETY-FIVE’ …….. AND HERE SHE WOULD COME TO THE DOOR TO BE LET IN’ to eat and let me milk her, some cows do know there names believe it or not I have seen this before on other small dairies. The ranch had expanded into milk production. My Daddy and I worked side by side for the next 12 years, day by day taking care of his beloved Bar Jay Ranch. I was honored to have been together on this earth and grateful that I got to be with and know my Daddy better because we spent so many long days and many years together as father and son of a dairy farmer, a son of a sailor. Early 3:30 am out the door get the horse, get this pistol with rat show just in case one of the big old bulls was feeling Irony they some times would test a horse and even charge the horse and rider, the rat shot would turn them away and a swift kick with your spurs the horse how jump ahead of the bull. Hour and hours and hours milking cows, feeding dairy calves with bottles, riding horses, planting corn, wheat, oats, sorghum, combining soybeans, Yucci (ArrowLeaf) Clover, crimson and clover over and over, hay, hay, hay so much hay and hauling hay.
My Daddy had been called Jay for years that I recall some of the cousins called him Uncle Cliff and other cousins called him Uncle Jay. I remember James Merrell telling me, one of his nephews the son of his brother Aubrey, “if it had not been for Uncle Cliff we would have gone to bed hungry at nights after our daddy died and your Daddy and mother always brought us Christmas presents and kept an eye on us”. What a good brother to help and take care of the widow and children of his brother.
I TAKE OFF MY HAT AND GIVE YOU A BOW.
I cannot think of a better role model. Thank you for being "My Daddy", my friend, my teacher, my mentor and sharing your love with so many.
**** END ****
And Now for the rest of the story as Paul Havey would say….. The following were my notes I spoke at the funeral of my Daddy passing December 26, 2005 at the age of 82 years 8 months and 12 days. I am a few days from my 50th birthday. click on this link for the song we played on the day of his furneral.
1978 October 26 was the year and day my mother passed away into glory. I was 23 years old. I remember most all of you were here at her funeral but as I look around I see some others missing and remember others that have also gone on to be with the Lord. I remember my mother witnessing to my Daddy about the Lord’s salvation and heard her many prayers asking the Lord to save him. She passed on into glory not seeing her prayers answered about Daddy’s salvation but she was a woman of faith and God did honor her prayers. The Holy Scriptures says unless the spirit of the living God draws a person they will not be saved. God created man in his own image and he created us as a free moral agent. We choose to receive or reject the spirit of the living God. We choose to receive or reject God’s salvation.
1978 December 24, a few months after my mother’s death I learned that you cannot make another person love you. My Junior and senior years, LuAlice was my high school sweetheart and wife of five years tell me wants a divorce. No matter what I did she rejected all of my pleading words and sacrifice. My Daddy stood beside me during those stressfull days helping me with his gun ho positive attitude and encouragement.
God has given us his word and has showed his love by giving his only begotten son that died on the cross. It is God’s way to bring salvation to mankind it is because of the blood of Jesus that we have remission of our sins. We cannot work our way into heaven and God will not make you love him it is your choice. Only receive him now. Today is the day of salvation. The answer of my mother’s prayers of Daddy’s salvation came in part thru Daddy’s second wife Virginia Merrell – Daddy called her Jenny- She passed into glory in 1986. God uses people sometimes to do his work. I am now married to a Virginia Merrell. We both married a Virginia and God used Jenny. The Lord’s ways are much above our ways and his thoughts much above our thoughts. I was closer to Jenny than the rest of my siblings because I saw her everyday and we had many discussions and Bible studies and read many of the same spiritual and inspiring books and talked about the Lord daily. Jenny was a devout Evangelistic Baptist anyone talking with her for five minutes knew she was a believer in Christ. I am grateful to the Lord and Jenny because she led Daddy to the Lord and I witnessed him being Baptized at the First Baptist Church here in Sulphur Springs on the 18 th day of October 1981. The Spirit of the Living God drew Daddy and he received Jesus Christ and confessed the Lord before men and was baptised in the name of the Father and of the son and of the Holy Ghost..
The Holy Bible says that a mans life is now during this dispensation is three score and ten years or seventy years. Which is really a very short time. Daddy lived 82 years 8 months and 12 days. Daddy loved being a cowboy and loved western movies. In the movie Lonesome Dove there is a scene were the cowboys are driving a herd of cattle across a swollen Texas river. One of the youngsters crossing last was thrown from his horse and a water moccasin bites him on the neck and he dies. After the scene of the funeral Gus played by Robert Duvall the older boss of the outfit tells the brother of the young man that they had just buried and another young man “Boys life is short, it is just shorted for some than others”. I know as sure as I am standing here some of us will not live to be 82 years old. So I am happy today in the mist of my sorrow and tears that Daddy lived longer than most men are blessed to live.
A few years after Jenny passed away Daddy met Imo Jean I know that he loved her and she loved him and cared for him for many years and regretfully and with many tears released him at my brothers’ suggestions and demands to put Daddy into the Nursing home because of his health problems. Thank you Imo Jean for your love and attention that you gave Daddy. March 19th and 20th this year I was here and spent time with Daddy and prayed with him and asked the Lord to be merciful to him and the Lord answered my prayer.
His last sweetie, I know that Daddy died with that spark in his eye because just last week (the week before he died) I called and talked with my Barry and he said, “you won’t believe it but Daddy just told me he was in love with a beautiful lady named Mrs. White and they were getting married. Thank you Mrs. White for giving Daddy that special time and attention. I know that he enjoyed your love and companionship he was worth loving and was very lovable.
Thank you Paul "Barry", Jayne and Timbo for being here and giving Daddy attention and care.
Thank all of you for being here today to honor my Father whom I called "My Daddy", your Uncle Jay or Uncle Cliff your friend Jay. I know some men believe and try to explain life and death. Some men that claim to be scientist and some even educated in certain ways say there is no resurrection. The scripture says they are men without hope and then there are other men that believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ these are the men of hope. The same debate has been going on for perhaps thousands of years. At the time of Christ the Sadducees believed that there was no resurrection that is why they called them sad-you-see. This God that put us here on this planet made us as flesh and blood which is corruptible and passes away. God remembers that we are nothing but the dust from which we were made.
I have meet people and read books of death experiences and all seem to say in death we go into a dimension that is not of this world and we are surrounded with light and you hear the sounds of thousands of voices singing and praising God which is scriptural according to John in Revelation 5:11-13 When you get where you are going as the song says sung by Dolly Pardon you will see the light - you will hear the singing you will see family members and people that loved you and they are all waiting for you and me on the other side. I encourage you all today to tell all the ones on this earth that you love them and care about their well-being. I love you all with all my heart and may you all go and rejoice today in the celebration of love we are experiencing today for my Daddy. God Bless you all good, really good.
End of sermon notes --
Little did I know that 16 months later on May 1, 2007 – The day I died –
I exhort you to write a Tribute to your parents if they are still living and give it to them. You will experience the best of human emotions.
My favorite quotes below tell a bit of who I am…………. I am a reflection of my parents ………
Honor you father and mother, that your days on the earth may be long, Moses said unto the Hebrews when he came down from the mountain with the Law written by the finger of God. Exodus 20
- God's people are being destroyed because of lack of knowledge. Hosea 4:6
- Knowledge is the beginning of wisdom. Knowledge applied to our lives is wisdom. Above all things pray and ask God for wisdom. -
- If a man empties his purse into his head no one can take it away from him. An investment in education always pays the best interest. Benjamin Franklin
- For nothing is secret that shall not be revealed; neither is there anything covered up that will not come out into the open, Jesus Luke 8:17
- Peace will not be kept by force but it will only be achieved by understanding. Albert Einstein
- There's no difference between one's killing and making decisions that will send others to kill. It's exactly the same thing, or even worse. Golda Meir
- We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people. President John F. Kennedy
- God has you in the palm of his hand. He will take what was meant to destroy you and use it to thrust you into your divine destiny. You are not defined by your past. You are prepared by your past. Nothing in life has happened to you. It has happened for you. Joel Osteen
- The power of truth. It has the power to free. It has the power to enlighten. And it has the power to give strength and confidence to those who need it.
Jesus is the way the truth and the life. I choose God received by the blessing promised to the heirs of Abraham and the joint heirs of JESUS CHRIST THE KING OF KINGS AND THE LORD OF LORDS
End of Favorite Quotes http://Monty Merrell.com/quotes.html
This story may continue ………
And some of who your Dad and Mom are would be well described by ‘your favorite quotes’ and I exhort you and call you to action.
Write a tribute to your living parents and let them read it while they are still living. You will see gratitude appreciation, tears, and the best of human emotions. It can be a living document and update when appropriate. Write and give to them now your letter and at their funeral if you survive them read it or have someone to read your letter about their lives ;-) mm
too, many good stories have been lost along the way .................
Monty Merrell
http://montymerrell.com/CLIFFORD-A-MERRELL.html