Larue Barnes: Twice blessed

September 04, 2008 12:53 pm

— Few people have lived a busier life than Fred Bennett of Cleburne. Some of his early days were filled with heavy responsibility that he could not avoid.
Other days were spent in a volunteer spirit, giving leadership to the community he called Home.
Freddie Lee Bennett was born Nov. 17, 1929, in Gorman, the third of four sons of Arthur and Ruby Nanny Bennett.
His dad had a grocery business but had to close it because customers could not pay their bills during the Great Depression.
“Our dad was sick when he bought a dairy,” Fred said. “Looking back, I see that he was careful to teach my mother and us boys how to run it. He died when he was only 44.”
So Fred learned to work long hours.
“I also did what Mother said. She had a hard job, running the dairy and managing us four boys with a switch. You didn’t backtalk. She was little, but she was a strong Christian lady.
“I milked before I went to school at Gorman. After school I worked at the Gorman Progress newspaper’s print shop for an hour and then milked again.
He came out for football as a freshman but changed his mind about staying with the sport.
“My boss at the print shop asked me one day, ‘You see how my knees are all messed up? That’s all I got for playing football — plus a letter jacket that I can’t wear, hanging in my closet.’”
Fred smiled. “I wasn’t really an outstanding player, anyway, but I’ve always loved to watch sports.”
He laughed and said he was the valedictorian, salutatorian and leader of everything in his graduating class of 1948.
“I was the only one who graduated in the summer. I didn’t graduate in May. I wasn’t a good student; I especially had trouble with bookkeeping. At the dairy we had to keep accounts for each customer that showed how much milk, whipping cream, buttermilk, skimmed milk, and butter we delivered and how many empty bottles we received. We figured the amount they owed so that they could pay at the end of the month. I had working experience with all that.
“But I hated bookkeeping class. I finally walked to the front of the classroom, slammed the book on the teacher’s desk, smarted off and told her I was walking out.
“She was furious and sent me to the school superintendent’s office. I had been to T. W. Beard’s home regularly, delivering milk, and I had done a lot of printing jobs for him.
“Mr. Beard told me to go home, and come back the next day to talk to him after I calmed down. He told me I couldn’t graduate without the course. I told him I couldn’t go back to that classroom.”
Beard volunteered to teach him bookkeeping that summer.
“After I studied with him and passed the course, I was delivering milk to his house, and he told me to come in, that he had something for me.”
Bennett grinned. “It was my high school diploma.”
He joined the U.S. Air Force, in 1948, serving as a radio mechanic after training at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois. Later he was stationed in El Paso.
“I tell everybody the only time I was overseas during those two years was when I crossed the Rio Grande River.”
When he returned to Gorman, he met Peggy Jean Bell, who had been four years behind him in school. She was exactly what he wanted in a wife.
“I worked for her father, George Bell, for two years in his oil well business. We married in 1951 in the parsonage of the First United Methodist Church in Gorman.”
But Bennett wanted to be a printer and began work at Victor Cornelius Printers in Eastland.
“I learned a lot there. They printed menus and theatrical programs with advertising.
“I left for a short time and worked for the De Leon Free Press at De Leon. That was a disaster. Their equipment was old and everything had to be fed by hand. I went back to my job in Eastland.”
Then came Ranger, the place where Bennett learned to serve a community.
“It was a wonderful change for me. As plant manager at Social Science Laboratories Printing Company, I was really challenged. The company printed history booklets and maps for the classroom. The summers were unbelievable — we worked around the clock — to sell advertisements for the booklets that we printed without cost to the schools.
“I learned how not to run a business, too. The partners didn’t trust each other, and I became their middle man, someone they could trust. But the environment gave me peptic ulcers and I smoked three packs of cigarettes a day.
“My doctor told me I couldn’t get rid of my ulcers if I didn’t quit smoking, so I quit and put my cigarette money into a life insurance policy, instead.”
The summers were hectic, but the rest of the year provided free time for Bennett to become involved in the Ranger community. A previous scout, himself, he served as a Cub Pack and Explorer Post scoutmaster for 11 years in Boy Scouts. He was chosen president of the Methodist Men’s Club and was a member of the board of stewards, and commission on missions.
He became a charter member of the local Jaycees Club and was a board member and officer of the Ranger Chamber of Commerce. He served two terms on the Ranger City Council and was president of the Craftsman Club in Fort Worth in 1961, a group made up of printers.
When he left Ranger he received one of his most prized awards, the Silver Beaver Award by the Boys Scouts of America.
In 1965, Peggy and Fred and their two sons, Gary and Michael — Mark would be born in Cleburne — moved to Cleburne for Fred to open his own printing shop on West Henderson Street, across the street from the present HEB Food Store.
“I borrowed from the policy I’d bought with cigarette money to live on for a year. I bought used printing equipment from William Rawland at the Cleburne Times-Review to get started. He was very good to me and helped me in many ways.
“We also borrowed money to buy the equipment and a house. I knew I had to make it.”
Customers found Bennett to be honest and dependable. He scrambled to meet deadlines. His business grew.
He recalled, “After about two years we moved to East Chambers Street in the old Central Freight building. We stayed there six years and added another 2,500 feet to the west end of the building.
“Our office supply business continued to grow and we needed more space for it and printing, so we purchased the Cumbie Furniture building at 300 East Chambers, and completely renovated it. It had formerly been a Ford dealership operated by the Diamond family.
“Our business began to expand, and we added stores in Alvarado [later moved to Whitney], Burleson, Waxahachie and Grand Prairie. We first had print shops in each location but decided we should consolidate all the printing in Cleburne.
“We continued to update our equipment as new technology became available. At the height of our business we employed 95 people. We cut that to 70 when we consolidated the printing and closed the Grand Prairie store.”
Bennett was named 1988 Citizen of the Year by the Cleburne Chamber of Commerce. He served as its president twice — in 1974, and again in 1990. In 1974, he was also president of the Cleburne Lions Club. In 1983, he was named to the Wall of Fame by the Chamber, and received the service award from Chamber Ambassadors in 1984. Last year he received the Melvin Jones Award from the Lions Club for humanitarian services and was named Ambassador Emeritus by the Cleburne Chamber of Commerce
He served on the board of directors of First National Bank in Joshua for 20 years. For 30 years he has spearheaded a fishing trip, taking 36 friends by chartered bus with six boats to Freeport.
In 2005, Bennett sold the business to his son and daughter-in-law, Gary and Melissa Bennett of Cleburne. Fred temporarily returned to the business when Gary became seriously ill.
“I was very thankful when Gary returned, and I could retire again,” Fred said.
Sons Mike and Mark Bennett had other career interests, he said.
“Mike is an architect and CEO of Gideon-Toal in Fort Worth, and Mark, of Dallas, is a district manager of Papparus, a nationwide gift-store firm. I’m very proud of all my sons and their families and consider it a blessing to be their father,” Fred said.
Peggy had successfully operated her Quick Print shop for 20 years, until her health failed. Fred called her his “greatest competitor” in the printing business, beating him out of several jobs.
“Peggy passed away in the spring of 2007, but with Alzheimer’s disease, I really lost her long before that. We had 56 wonderful years of marriage. I didn’t think I would ever marry again. I sat in the house and people eventually stopped coming by or calling. I was so very lonely,” he said.
“On Peggy’s birthday my phone rang. It was Dottie Jones, a family friend and our previous bookkeeper. She told me she knew how hard that first birthday without Peggy was for me because she had lost her husband, Bill, in 2005.”
“I call many people I am concerned about,” Dottie said. “I had worked at Bennett Printing and Office Supply for five years. I took the job because my hours were flexible, and I could go to pep rallies and on band trips with my children. I honestly didn’t remember much about Fred except that I got really mad at him one day and quit.”
She laughed.
“Peggy made him call me and apologize for something he had said that hurt my feelings, so I came back. I had quit for three days, but when I made out the payroll, I paid myself for those days anyway.”
Fred called Dottie a few days after her phone call and asked her if she would like to go out to dinner in Fort Worth.
“I was totally surprised when Fred called me,” she said. “I certainly didn’t expect it, and I was very aware of the time frame. I hadn’t gone out with anyone since Bill’s death, and I told Fred as we walked into a Fort Worth restaurant that I thought we should keep our time together quiet. I had children and he had children. I didn’t want to offend anyone. A group came in and sat right next to us. It was a young married couples group from First Christian Church, Fred’s church!
“We spent the entire time talking about Peggy and Bill. We understood what the other was going through.”
They married in October 2007.
“We decided at our ages we didn’t have any time to lose,” she said. “The biggest adjustment I had was leaving my church. Bill and I were longtime members at College Heights Baptist Church, where he had taught Bible study classes for years. When he died I missed him more there than anywhere else. Caring people surrounded me, but I knew I had to move to another church to adjust.
“I had sung at Friendship Baptist Church before and visited there. When I moved my membership, the precious people there helped me grieve and helped me heal. After a time, I knew it was time to go back home to College Heights. I explained it to them, and they understood.
“It was so wonderful to be back at my church again! But when Fred and I married, believing the husband should be the spiritual leader of the family, I joined the church where he is an elder so that we can worship together.”
Dottie teaches a 4-6 grade Sunday school class at First Christian. They call her “Grandma.” One 9-year-old boy approached her in church recently and innocently asked, “Would you hug me?”
She smiled.
“That was all right. I am a grandma. Sometimes they give me a hard time. I was about to sing a solo at church and on the back row, these kids held up a sign that read, ‘Dottie Rocks!’”
She laughed.
“It was really hard to sing after that.”
On their fireplace mantel are two identically framed photos — one of Peggy and Fred; another of Bill and her.
“Between us, we represent 92 years of marriage,” she explained, “I have six children, 17 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. Fred has three sons and five grandchildren. We want to honor the memory of their father and mother. I have done some redecorating, but I realize this is Fred’s children’s home, too.”
In their church not long ago Dottie convinced Fred to sing a duet with her. It began, “The only real peace that I have, dear Lord is in you.”
“We deliver food for Meals on Wheels,” Fred said. “I see how God has blessed me in many ways, especially with great children and loving memories of their mother.”
He looked across the table at his wife and said softly, “And now I’m twice blessed.”

Larue Barnes may be reached at laruebarnes@yahoo.com.

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