For 20 years Wayne McCoy, now 81, served as pastor of the Assembly of God Church in Godley. The entire town still embraces him as theirs. He said he believed in serving others without “drawing lines and setting boundaries.”

When anyone needed his help he gave it. He also worked full time in the Santa Fe Shops.

McCoy has always been a country boy at heart.

“I went to Irving Elementary in first grade. Then we moved to Dr. C.C. Cooke’s farm between Cleburne and Godley. The Godley highway was gravel then. We were five miles from school, and we walked both ways.

“It was the Depression. There were five boys and one girl in my family. Our parents, Leroy and Mabel McCoy, worked hard on the farm. We all helped.

“School was an enjoyable time for me. I attended Bethany School and had B. J. and Ruby Jackson of Cleburne and Mrs. Anderson from the Friendship community as my teachers. Bethany played Hopewell, Friendship and West Liberty Schools in softball at county meets. I was so proud when Dorothy Nell Callaway and I won first place in spelling. I treasured that medal.”

Wayne also attended Hopewell School northeast of Cleburne before enrolling in Cleburne Junior High and moving on to Riley House in Cleburne High School. He graduated in 1946.

He fired steam engines for Santa Fe for a while and then worked at Ed Williams Grocery.

“One day someone came in and said, ‘Wayne, have you heard that your house just burned down?’ We had lost everything,” he said.

Wayne had admired Wanda Splawn, whose father G. D. Splawn, pastored the Assembly of God Church in Godley from 1939-49.

“I went by the parsonage and left Wanda a note, asking her to call me at 546. She did.

“She still has the note somewhere,” he said with a smile.

Before Wayne was drafted into the Army, he and Wanda became engaged.

“When I was in basic training in Fort Benning, Ga., I got a ‘Dear John’ letter from her. While home on leave before I was sent to Germany, she gave me my ring and pictures back.

“When I was in Germany my brother, G. D., was in a terrible accident and not expected to live. I came home on emergency leave.”

G. D. survived, and things improved on the home front. Wanda and Wayne were married on December 29, 1951.

While in the U.S. 4th Infantry Division, McCoy served with occupation forces on border patrol between Germany and Russia during the Cold War.

He was discharged in October 1952, and returned to Cleburne.

He was hired as a mechanic apprentice for the Santa Fe Railroad.

He and Wanda began attending First Assembly of God Church in Cleburne.

“You know how some people have a revelation from God about becoming a minister? I didn’t experience that. Instead, God seemed to prepare me in steps,” he said.

He first taught junior boys in Sunday School, then a young couples class. He became church secretary and treasurer and later was youth leader.

“My wife’s father had become a pastor in Pilot Point, and he asked me to speak at his church. I began to receive invitations to speak in other churches.”

In 1957, he was laid off at the Santa Fe, and the family moved to Houston, where he worked for another railroad.

“I was so proud of our new ’52 Chevy. We took the kids to the Shrine Circus and parked out on the street. Afterwards, we found our car had been stolen.”

After locating a policeman for help, they were taken to a taxi stand.

“At 5 a.m. the next morning the police called to tell me that they had found our car with the wheels and tires stripped,” he said. “It had been towed to a Ford dealership instead of to a Chevrolet place. They had even removed the back seat to get the spare. Otherwise, it was fine, still had the gas in the tank.

“I walked five blocks to an auto salvage place to buy some wheels and tires. I was afraid I’d have to roll them back one at a time. Thankfully, the guy volunteered to take me in his truck.”

He had no insurance. They wanted no more of Houston.

He returned to Cleburne and worked again at the Santa Fe Shops.

Unexpectedly, deacons from the Assembly of God Church in Godley came to visit and asked him to fill in as their pastor.

From January until June 1966 he preached with no license, which he later earned, and was paid $10 a week. Some 20 to 30 people attended.

The church asked him to become their pastor.

They were the first family to live in the church’s new parsonage.

Its note was paid off within a year, and McCoy encouraged the congregation to start a building fund to remodel.

The church structure had been built in the 1890s as a Presbyterian church.

“I climbed underneath and was amazed to find hand-hewn beams on flat rock.”

They added 38 feet to the old church and added a baptistry, central air and heat, and a brick exterior. He and the men of the church worked together to build it.

“One of our most generous but quiet benefactors was the late Eddie McKittrick, a successful contractor. As we worked, he dropped in to see what we needed, and then donated materials and his work crews to get it finished.

“Ferris Lee, a Baptist deacon in his 80s and a skilled carpenter, worked hard with us. It made no difference to him that it wasn’t his church. He was doing it for the Lord,” McCoy said.

McCoy saw Mr. Lee roofing his own house one day, trying to climb atop “dog house” dormer windows.

He asked him to come down so he could finish the roofing for him.

Monroe Wallis of Godley was one of the deacons who worked alongside the pastor.

“I grew up in the church,” Wallis said. “My parents were charter members there. I’m retired military, and I’ve seen a lot of leaders in my lifetime. Brother Wayne is one I’ve never argued with. If there was a disagreement, he could always work something out.

“He was the town’s pastor. I’ve seen him pay for needs out of his own pocket so many times. He gave when no one else would. He worked hard so many hours at the church and then went to work at the railroad.

“He was a good businessman. The church learned how to thrive. That is not easy for a small-town church sometimes. Our attendance more than tripled while he was here.

“Words can’t express my respect for the man.”

In 1975, after serving as pastor for nine years, McCoy resigned after the remodeling was complete, thinking his work there was done.

But three years later, the deacons asked him to return.

“I asked God to let me know what I was to do. I didn’t want it to be my decision.

“We had bought a home in Joshua. I went by a hardware store and bought a for sale sign and staked it in our front yard. Within two hours a young couple came to our door, looked through the house, and bought it within hours.”

In 1978, the McCoys returned to the church, moving back into the parsonage. The church built an educational building, added a steeple and a sign. Membership was strong again.

“I knew we needed a youth minister, and so we bought a home in Cleburne in 1983 so that the youth minister could live in the parsonage. I retired in 1989,” McCoy said.

“I can never explain how wonderful the people in Godley are. I was active in the Lion’s Club and loved high school sports. The Baptist and Methodists and Assembly of God held annual joint revivals. There is such a real community spirit there.”

He has no idea how many marriages and funerals he has performed in the 45 years of ministry.

“Ceremonies are so personal. I remember one of the pallbearers at a funeral approaching the casket afterwards, asking if he could do something. A cowboy, he reverently tucked a can of Skoal in the guy’s pocket.”

I saw a “Faithful Community Service” plaque Wayne McCoy had received from the First Baptist Church. They had been without a pastor, and he visited their sick and cared for their people like his own. The FBC deacons presented the surprise award before he preached one Sunday.

The McCoys are members of Bethel Assembly of God Church in Cleburne, where he recently taught the adult auditorium class for 13 years until he resigned at age 80.

McCoy still performs weddings and funerals and fills in for pastors.

The McCoys have traveled in their conversion van to Nova Scotia and Monterrey, Mexico, with Melvin Splawn, Wanda’s brother, and his wife, Jewel.

Wanda worked for 15 years in JCPenney’s catalog department.

Their son, Ronnie McCoy and wife, Rene, live in Godley. Their daughter, Carla, and her husband, Juan Hernandez, live in New Braunfels. There are six grandchildren and one great-granddaughter.

“When I came here 22 years ago I was told that I needed to meet the Assembly of God pastor,” said Kenneth Coleman, pastor of FBC in Godley. “They said he would probably be assisting in most of the funerals I preached.

“They were right. Brother Wayne has been one of the most influential men in my life and my greatest mentor. He is one of the most respected and loved men I’ve ever known, a true Christian in every respect.

“We’ve agreed. If I die first, he’ll preach my funeral. If not, I’ll be there for him.”



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