Influential Woman in My Life

---

Influential Woman in My Life My wife Vickie has been the most influential woman in my life. She is a leader; she is comfortable with whom she is; and she is and always has been absolutely unselfish. She was responsible for my finding salvation in Christ as she invited me to go with her to a revival at Belmont Baptist Church in Odessa, Texas when I was 17 years of age. I was not interested in church, Jesus or revival. I had never been churched. I simply wanted to be near Vickie. However, I heard the gospel clearly preached that evening and I received Christ as Savior. However, Vickie’s giving heart is better exemplified by an episode that occurred in Lubbock, Texas, in 1970. We had moved to Lubbock from Dallas in 1969 upon my graduation from college in Dallas so I could continue my education in the MBA program at Texas Tech. During the first fall semester, I was studying long and hard and Vickie had some extra time on her hands, and as she typically does, when she has extra time, she finds something to occupy her. Through her calling to various agencies, she learned about a family of six foster children, ages 3 to 10 who needed tutoring. She took on the task and began reading and working with this small group of children who happened to be black. Recall that in 1970, the race relations were not good in our country and schools and communities in Texas were segregated. This did not deter Vickie in in the least as she would work with the children and bring them to our small apartment where we took them trick or treating at Halloween in our complex. She thought nothing of racial issues. These children needed to have some fun on Halloween and to her, it did not matter the color of their skin. Halloween passed and she continued her tutoring and general interaction with the children. When Christmas arrived, Santa Claus came to the large shopping mall in Lubbock and all the little children came to visit him, sit on his lap and whisper what

they wanted for Christmas. However, all of the little smiling children happened to be white. Vickie, who pays not attention to skin color, loaded the children into the agency van and we headed for that festive, brightly lit mall to let those children tell Santa what they wanted for Christmas. We arrived to find a long line of little white children and we promptly got in line with our six beautiful children and the contrast was obvious. I was aware of the stares and occasional “what are you doing here?” looks from a handful of people. I was certainly not intimidated, but I was aware. Vickie may have been aware of the looks also, but she was oblivious to them. Our little children climbed upon Santa’s lap and conveyed their wishes, which Vickie assisted Santa in fulfilling a few days later. Vickie may not have been participating in the sit-ins in Montgomery or other parts of the country during the sixties, but she and six children certainly boldly lead in the desegregation of the all-white Santa Claus line in Lubbock, Texas, on a wind chilled December day in 1970. Lubbock began busing students as a means of desegregation in 1970.

-- Jimmy Moore