"I'd Rather He'd Stay"

The following tribute to Foy E. Wallace, Sr., was not written after his death, which occurred a few months ago. Instead, it was published by a newspaper columnist on September 8, 1933, in the Seminole Producer. The occasion was Brother Wallace's departure from Seminole, Okla., to work again with the church at Longview, Texas. He meant for this to be his last move. It was not, however. He continued preaching for sixteen years, and delivered his last sermon on the night before his brief illness resulting in his passing.

Borrowed from the scrapbook of one of the daughters, the piece appeared in a column headed, "Back Talk." The author signed himself J. M. V.

Foy E. Wallace, pastor of the Church of Christ, will leave Seminole within a very few days for his old church at Longview, Texas, a church to which he has preached from time to time for the past 32 years. I regret to see him go. He is one of the most open-minded and tolerant, and at the same time devoutly and sincerely religious men, I have ever known.

Preachers and I find it difficult to agree. Their dogmatic, set, cut-and-dried, canned and sealed doctrines and my hard-headed practicalities do not often make peaceful bedfellows. That is probably a point in favor of the ministers.

Wallace (he prefers not to be called reverend) has been a rock of common sense, logic, and reason in a sea of emotionalism. It took courage and he got scant credit for his trouble. He was one of the two ministers who steered an even course when others were jumping and snorting over the bawl-and-jump evangelists who paid us a prolonged visit last spring. His religion is one of dignity as well as consecration and devotion to what he believes to be an eminently worthy cause.

Other ministers have come and gone. So far as I'm concerned, their coming and their going did not ruffle the usual calm of everyday life in this inland hamlet. But this one, I'd rather he'd stay. He is a man who can tell you a thing is that way, and then sit down and with logical reasoning show you why, and still respect you for having an opinion of your own. Such men are not common.

"So far as I know, I don't owe a dollar to any man in the world," Wallace said in a public address yesterday. Very few, if any, other men in Seminole could say as much. And the number of preachers who could say that is very small indeed. I don't mean that locally, entirely.

It is evident that people elsewhere have about the same opinion of this grey-haired old Texas scholar and gentleman. A friend has given him a nice home and a plot of Texas soil. Wallace expects to make this his last move. If he wants it that way, I hope that it is. He deserves rest and security for the remainder of his days.

Though I don't attend his church, I trust his successor is a man of the Wallace stamp. I don't expect him to be of equal caliber. It would take years of devotion, much learning, and endless patience to be that. We are losing a great man. I hope he'll find the comfort and peace for his remaining years which he so richly deserves.