My Dad, Frank Baucom, had two best friends. One was the man that led him to
the Lord, Walter Glasscock. Walter & his wife Leda were furthering their education
at Southeastern Bible College in Birmingham when Walter met Dad on a hunt and
begin to witness to him. This was in the early '60’s and Dad got saved not too
long after their first meeting.
(One of my earliest memories is going to SEBC on cold winter
nights and staying in the basement nursery while Dad took the bible classes
taught by Dr. Talley. Sometimes after class we'd drive around Southside looking
for the Tamale Man. Birmingham was a place of rare beauty on winter nights, driving down off the mountain with all the lights of the city twinkling below.)
Walter and Leda were with RHMA - Rural Home Missionary
Association. Their life's work was
planting churches across the mid-west and we loved receiving the missionary
update letters and photos they sent. Dad often mentioned their ministry in prayer so even though we didn't get to see them a lot, they were a part of our lives. My Dad
and Walter also kept up a personal correspondence for over 30 years and both
relished the opportunities they had to spend time together, especially when the
Glasscock kids grew up and came back to Birmingham to attended SEBC. They always
felt like family.
My Dad's other best friend was Hoyt Mason. Dad met Hoyt at
church in the '80's and they hunted and fellowshipped together as often as
possible. We shared many a good meal and holiday with Hoyt and his sweet wife
Louise, they seemed like part of the family.
If you ever met Hoyt, you never forgot him. He had the most
infectious smile and a wonderful personality that was almost bigger than life,
yet he was a very humble man. Unless he was at church, you usually saw Hoyt in
overalls, or if he was hunting, camouflage.
His only slight nod to vanity was his big baby blue Lincoln, “purchased used,” he always noted.
Hoyt was an excellent conversationalist and always had a nice clean joke that you’d
never heard. Or maybe you HAD heard it before, but he was such a raconteur
that it was a pleasure to hear it again.
As my dad once said of his friendship with Hoyt, “We never
ran out of things to talk about.” I liked that sentiment.
When Daddy died, Hoyt drove me down to their “sort of” Hunt
Club near Carrollton in Pickens County to get Dad's little camper. As we drove
past it, Hoyt nonchalantly pointed out the face in the courthouse window. That
gave me a scare that I still recall 20 years later! I’m pretty much a skeptic
about things like that and I was not expecting to look up and actually see a
discernible face!
We called it the “sort of” Hunt Club for several reasons:
They we’re able to go near as often as they would have liked, and the club gave
them a cut-rate deal on a membership because they didn't need space in the
bunkhouse. They both stayed tickled pink over that situation for the few years Dad
was able to go. They would have paid EXTRA to be able to hunt on the land and
have their “private camp” and here they were, able to hunt for just a small
nominal fee because of the little camper.
On the drive to retrieve the camper Hoyt also shared some sweet memories of my Dad and some of
their adventures we didn't know about, like the time the Jeep got stuck on the
stump and they had to go wake up their preacher friend and the preacher had to
go round up all his grandsons to lift the Jeep off the stump. “Don’t tell
Bonnie or Louise,” he added solemnly.
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| Preacher & Hoyt Mason |
Hoyt died last week and his funeral was Saturday, he was 76.
We drove up to Oneonta to pay our respects to Louise and the kids. Due to Garry’s
work schedule we couldn't stay for the funeral but we did get a chance to speak
with the preacher of Hoyt's funeral who had come from Texas, and introduce him to our ten year-old, Carson.
Carson Baucom Dickey is the grandson of Frank Baucom. He never knew his granddad, but he's a lot like him. This is a picture of Carson with Pastor Walter Glasscock and his dear wife Leda.
Walter Glasscock was my dad's other best friend. He led him to the Lord in the early '60's.
