"Second on My Mind" by David Fulk

You've probably heard Ray Charles sing Hoagy Carmichael and Stuart Gorrell's classic “Georgia on my Mind.” I'd like to change the phrase, "…just an old sweet song keeps Georgia on my mind," to "…early morning walks keep Second on my mind."

Nearly every morning, I walk through Fairview and New Hope Cemeteries, where connections to Second abound. Just before the cemetery, I pass the Handriches' house, wondering what musical worship moment Chip is creating.

Then it's into the cemetery. Having done this for years and being a headstone reader, it didn't take long to realize so many 2BC friends are buried here, and many others whom I've only heard or read about. At some point, I began calling a "good morning" or "hello" to those I've known when I walk by their stones. My greeting always conjures up a memory of that person.

Here they are: Helen Early, Walt and Laura Tapp Binns, Irene and Vern LaFrenz, Betty Shouse and her parents Frank and Margaret (whose estate funded the 1980 organ renovation), Louella and Art Reppert, Betty Lou and Denny Anderson, Edna Shepherd, Mary Foley, Polly and Dick Bowles, Everett Truex, Doris and John Truex, Ferrell and Flora Belle Griffey, Christine Griffey Pugh, Dorothy and Don McClain, and Georgia Bowman. Stalwart saints, all.

I pass others who were founders or long ago leaders of Second: Arthur and Olive Tutt (he, the longtime clerk and author of Second's 1943 history), his father, B.G. Tutt (pastor 1881-1890, for whom Tutt Chapel is named), early, prominent members Dinah Allen and her sister Elizabeth Trigg Thornton, Elizabeth's daughter and son-in-law Caroline and O.P. Moss (both longtime Sunday School leaders and she the founder of WMU at Second and in Missouri), and finally, three founders Robert and Martha Minter and his mother, Harriett. Yes, "Second on my mind."

Of course, I notice the monument to Clay County's Confederate soldiers—a distinct reminder of the role the South (and its Confederacy) played in the first decades of Liberty and Second.

This year I've been grateful for Michelle Cook's work in bringing to light the hundreds of African-Americans buried in unmarked graves on the east side of Fairview and New Hope. I enjoy visualizing the future memorial to these souls being planned by Harold Phillips, Becky Gossett, and others. And many of you will remember what a powerful role model Pastor Bill Link was to 2BC and Liberty in race relations through the 1960s. (His parents are buried in Fairview).

Then my walk takes me through the parking lot of Franklin Elementary, remembering the good work of Marcia Duke as a school counselor and the current work of Julie Williams as a music teacher.

Until Franklin was built (1939), there sat on that parking lot site the old Sandusky School. "Second on my mind" yet again, for it was here—for three years—Second held worship services after the 1920 fire. Accepting the school board’s invitation to use the third-floor auditorium meant worship could still happen on Sunday mornings at 11:00. That's right—third-floor. No elevator!

At a time when we are now displaced from our building, it's comforting to realize we've been displaced before. Then, as now, they found a way to make it work. I wonder what it would be like to hold one of our new outdoor services in that parking lot as a centennial reminder of that 1920-23 displacement.

Second on my mind.