My Descending from Gov. - D. A. Sharpe

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Register Report for William Bradford Generation 9 mother and his brother were in the household of Andy &Bill's Nason grand parents, Albert Lancaster Nason and Ila BellRamsey. It is of interest to see that Andy's name in this 1930 US Census wasAlbert A. Jumper, which was what his mother says she named him. Sheaddressed him as Albert, but he did not like that name, muchpreferring his middle name, Andrew and liked being called Andy. Hegrew up having people call him Andy. It was to his great delight whenhe entered the Coast Guard when it was the first time for him ever tohave his birth certificate requested, that his name had been recordedcontrary to his Mother's wishes. He was officially Andrew AlbertJumper! Of course, in the military, they would permit use only of thefirst name, which was great for him. However, his Mother called himAlbert till the day she died! After Andy's mom remarried, the family located in Parkin, Arkansas,where he finished high school, managing to be selected an all-statefootball player. Andy went to Mississippi State University on afootball scholarship in 1943. Bill, Andy's older brother, is a good story teller, and here is moreof his telling to me in 2003: "On a dreary, wet Sunday afternoon on December 7, 1941, Andy and I andabout a dozen other town kids were down at the school football fieldplaying a game of touch football (I was 15 and Andy was 13 ) back thenno TV and darn little radio. My step father walked down and calledall us kids over and told us about the report of the attack on PearlHarbor just in over the radio. Well, being country kids and knowinglittle of world affairs, we thought it was bad. But really, we hadlittle idea that our world was in for a big change that, at thatmoment, we could not foresee it's impact. "In 1942 I (Bill) was in the 12th grade and doing badly, as I was apoor student and really never applied myself. Most of my pals were alittle older than me and were starting to be called up for militaryservice. So, not wanting to miss out on the war, I joined the U. S.Navy in May 1943. That same summer my folks had a job opportunity inthe Parkin, Arkansas area. It was a large country store owned by alarge landholding company out of Chicago, Illinois. They moved thereand were furnished a house in conjunction with the store. Andy wentto Parkin High School. As well as being a good student, he was agreat football player. In his senior year they won the statechampionship. He and a kid named John Hannah made all state awards.John Hannah went on to play for Arkansas University, made AllAmerican, was drafted by the Greenbay Packers and made all pro severaltimes. Andy was courted by a number of colleges and made recruitingtrips to Kentucky, Arkansas, Ole Miss and Mississippi State. As itturned out Mississippi State offered the best opportunity. "Schools could get away with a lot of things back then, and, as longas it was not too overt, no one complained. For Andy he was to get$500 per year clothing allowance to be used at Bonds Clothing Store inMemphis and five round trip bus tickets home. He had an on campus jobthat paid a stipend as well. In 1945, realizing he was about to bedrafted, he joined the Coast Guard. At one point he was stationed inNew York City and I happened to be in at the Philadelphia yard. Icaught the train and spent the weekend with him in New York City.Andy later went to Houston and that's where he met Elizabeth. "I remember during the time in 1947 that he was in Houston and thefertilizer ship blew in the harbor of the port of Texas City, killingover 100 and nearly blowing the entire port and town off the map,There was a long investigation by the U.S. Coast Guard and evidentiaryhearing lasting for months. Andy had, on his own, learned to use theshorthand machine that you still see used in courtrooms. He took theentire testimony for that long hearing, then had to transcribe it. Itwas a monumental task. "Of course Andy and Elisabeth got married, and she transferred fromRice Institute to Ole Miss. Andy had some health problems and hadchosen not to return to Mississippi State, nor to play any morefootball. By the time he finished at Ole Miss, I was living inMemphis and attended his graduation ceremony. As an aside, when Andywent to Miss State, he Page 108 of 182 Tuesday, December 11, 2012 11:29:07 AM
Register Report for William Bradford Generation 9 played some ball as a freshman due to the warhaving taken so many players. There was a player who was a freshmanby the name "Shorty" McWilliams. He also joined the Navy and playedat the Naval Academy and then came back to Mississippi State and madeAll American. He was a running back." I'm grateful to Bill for his vignettes to fill in our our familystory. After a year in college, he entered the Coast Guard duringWorld War II, serving in New York, New York and in Houston, Texas. Itwas in Houston that he met Elizabeth and their love flourished. It wasin New York that he worked in the same bull pen office of typists withAlex Haley (8/11/1921 - 2/10/1992), noted author of "Roots" andbenefactor of black studies in America. On January 23, 1977, the TVmini-series ''Roots,'' based on the Alex Haley novel, began airing onABC. It also was from New York that he proposed marriage to Elizabeth bylong distance phone call, having equipped her Mother to have theengagement ring handy, assuming the positive reply, which, of course,did come. After marriage and return to pursing college education, they bothgraduated from the University of Mississippi at Oxford, Mississippi.He'd originally had his sights set on the law profession. He evenhinted that his ambition was to be Governor of Mississippi someday.However, while at Ole Miss, he sensed a calling of God on his life.He did some lay preaching in small country churches near Oxford. Theymoved after graduation to Austin, Texas, where he graduated from theAustin Presbyterian Theological Seminary in 1954. He was ordained in the Presbyterian Church in the United States(called the Southern Presbyterian Church). In later life, after somechurch controversies, he joined the newlyformed EvangelicalPresbyterian Church. He served that church with leadership, includingbeing its General Assembly's Moderator for a one-year term. He washonored as one of the founders of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. The churches he served were Christ Presbyterian Church, Houston,Texas; West Shore Presbyterian Church, Dallas, Texas; FirstPresbyterian Church, Lubbock, Texas; and Central Presbyterian Church,Clayton, St. Louis County, Missouri, from where he retired. Hispastoral career included giving leadership to a number of events andmovements in the denominations over the years, including being on theJoint Committee for Union, that resulted in the Souther Churchreuniting with the Northern Church, officially the Presbyterian Churchin the United States of America. The reunited church became known asthe Presbyterian Church USA. He wrote at least two books of significance in the Presbyterian Church(PCUS). "Chosen to Serve" was a training book for Deacons and the"Noble Task" was a training book for elders. They became the standardfor local Presbyterian Churches in the South to use for officertraining from the 1960's through the 1970's. Authors receiveroyalties for such publications, modest though they are. However, itis of interest that in the late 1970's, the publisher told Andy thathis accumulated royalties on those two books represented the most thatPresbyterian publisher had ever paid to any one author. He was Senior Pastor of the Central Presbyterian Church of Clayton,Saint Louis County, Missouri at the time when his first wife,Elizabeth (my sister), died of cancer. His second wife, Sydney, was amember of that church, and I was the best man at that wedding. One of Andy's many pastoral talents included crafting sermon titlesthat simply drew the reader to want to hear what was to be said.People use to look at the church sign out front a couple of daysbefore Sundays just to see what title would be used. I believe thereeven was a newspaper columnist reference about that one time, but itsdocumentation is lost in my memory. A couple of titles stick in mymind. "Spitting Against the Wind" was one. It was about a sign in theold stage coaches for the tobacco chewers to be sure to spit with thewind, or suffer Page 109 of 182 Tuesday, December 11, 2012 11:29:07 AM
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My Descending from Gov. - D. A. Sharpe

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