It has been fifty-three years since I had the joy of giving my father a Father’s Day gift. My, how time passes us by! It is unbelievable the speed with which the clock ticks as one lives life. Frank Harrell, Jr went to be with the Lord on January 11, 1970 and it’s hard to believe that he has been gone that long.
My dad was a very talented man. He played the piano wonderfully well and never had a formal lesson. His drawings could easily have been on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post if he had gotten the right breaks in life. I will never forget the warm personality which was his. However, when disciplining his children, he could be very firm but we always knew that he loved us even though he could dispense punishment for misbehavior very efficiently. Last year I wrote an article for Father’s Day entitled “Things My Father Taught Me” and there were many of them which have stuck with me.
Dad was born in a little town called Pavo, GA. Pavo is about 20 miles south of Moultrie, GA. and that is where he grew up after the family moved to Moultrie when he was about two years old. As I grew up, I remember that we would make that “long” trip to Moultrie about once a month to see his parents, M. Frank Harrell, Sr and my grandmother, Opal Ott Harrell. They lived in a large white house on the corner next to the Dairy Queen. We always got a treat from the Dairy Queen each time we visited Moultrie. I remember sitting in the back yard under the shade of a large pear tree and eating watermelon in the hot Summer time. Man, what a treat to visit Grandmother and Grandaddy Harrell.
During the Second World War,my dad volunteered for the service by joining the U.S. Navy. I was too small to understand why he was no longer at home every day but my mother and grandmother Golden filled in for him and this little boy had a wonderful home life while dad was gone. I have read stories of how kids didn’t know their fathers when they returned home from the war, and that was true of me. Here’s the story:
One day my mother and I were in the back of the house that we all lived in during the war. Many families did that. They shared a home during those difficult days.
My mother knew that my father was coming home soon but she didn’t know the exact day. We were down a long hall near the bedroom we occupied when a knock came at the front door. My mother said: “Bill run see who that is at the door” and I took off. When I entered the living room the man at the door was not familiar to me but I saw that he had on a white uniform. He said: “Well, hello young man, is your mother home.” I ran back down the hall and told my mother that there was a man at the door in a white suit. She immediately squealed and took off running to the front door. She unlatched the screen and dad came in. He immediately picked me up and gave my mother and me a big kiss. I remember it as if it were yesterday.
I didn’t take long for me to understand that this guy was my father and we began to make up for lost time. While in the Navy in the South Pacific, dad was injured. And spent about nine months in the hospital at Manila in the Philippines. But he was home now and everything was good.
After his passing in 1970, I began to realize that I really didn’t know much about my dad’s life. He never talked about himself much. I only wish that he had spent some time telling us about his high school days. I always wondered about his friends. One, in particular was very interesting to me. His name was Dr. Corbin Thigpen of Three Faces of Eve fame. He and his family used to rent an apartment from my Grandfather Harrell. It was a house with two sides and Dr. Thigpen and his mother lived in one side of it. He was a part of the “gang.” I have a picture of the kids in the neighborhood standing against the side of a house to have their picture made. Dr. Thigpen is in that photo along with my dad and the other kids on the block. I went to see Dr. Thigpen one day a number of years ago and he told me some things about my father. He related some things about their early days playing with the other kids. He also talked about dad’s talents and how good they were. He related about how popular dad was with the kids at school and how the girls all liked him because he was a good-looking guy. I enjoyed my time with Dr. Thigpen. He filled me in on a number of things but I still didn’t know much about Frank Harrell, Jr.
But, my father’s earlier life remained basically a mystery to me. Those days are gone now and can never be recovered and neither can the events which memories are built upon. I decided a few years ago that I didn’t want my family to be faced with the same thing I was faced with so I began to write down certain important events in my life so they would know something about me in the years to come. I have those things on my web site….www.williamfharrell.com because my family encouraged me to put them on the site. They are listed under
“Recollections.” So, in the coming years my children, grand children and others will be able to know a little about me from these writings. I put new ones on there as they come to me. There is a large number of them at this time but others will added in the coming months and years. I would encourage all parents to do that same kind of thing. Life in your own words will bring to life the photos a family might have. And if any of your family ever wants to know some of your history, there it is in your own words. Plus, it’s a lot of fun to do this for your family and for yourself as well.
Frank Harrell Jr. is remembered and sorely missed. What little I know about him is treasured information. Here on this Father’s Day, I want to pay a tribute to the man that God gave me as my father. I think of this prayer:
Father in Heaven, I want to thank you and praise you for the man you gave me for my earthly father. He was a good man. He was a good Christian man who brought his children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. My father molded me and helped form me into the person that you saw fit to call to preach. So much of who I am is a reflection of the man you gave me as my Father. Thank you a million times over for this gift to me and my family. Thank you also for all the good fathers in America who honor you, Love their families and faithfully provide for them. Bless them each day.
In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
