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Leon Hale The Houston Post Subject: REV. JEFFERSON 'JEFF' NORRIS -- Wednesday -- 02-26-1964 'The Lord's Got Me Reserved,' Believes Preacher, Near 89 The house has a tin roof and a long front gallery trimmed in green. It stands back in the post oak off Farm Road 977 about halfway between Leona and Flynn in Leon County. I drove up in front and called from the gate, because a pair of rangy, noisy dogs didn’t seem too friendly toward me. The tall man that came out of the house looked, from the gate, to be maybe 40. He was in working clothes. Patched blue denims, a sweater under a brown suit coat and a leather cap, new. I ASKED IF Rev. Jefferson Norris was home. The man said he was Rev. Norris. Then I must have stood there and studied his face. Perhaps I looked doubtful. I’d been told Jefferson Norris was 90 years old. This man hadn’t any more wrinkles than I have. Walked straight and quick. His handshake was strong. His eyes clear. “Well, I’ll be 89 on May 13,” Rev. Norris said, and he smiled and showed a row of white teeth tipped with gold. For more than 60 years Jefferson Norris has preached to country congre-gations in Leon County. We sat down in the sun and he told about it. “You might say I’m like a self-made preacher, with the Lord's help,” he said. “I never did do much schooling for it. But I had religious training from my early days. My father and my mother were both religious. My father was a deacon and he trained me and my brothers. I haven’t used an ax to cut a stick of wood on Sunday since I don’t know when. “BUT OTHER DAYS I still work. I took to working on the farm when I was 7 years old and you might say I’m still at it. I feel better stirrin’ around than just sittin’ around. Me and my boy we’ve got some cattle, and we raise a little truck, and some feed for the stock. I preach to my folks that an idle mind is the devil’s workshop.” Maybe half a mile across Rev. Norris’ pasture is his country church, the Galilee-Living Hope Baptist. “Now it used to be two churches,” the pastor told me, “and I was pastorin’ both of ‘em. Well, it was a little jealousy there. Maybe one thought I was doin’ more for the other, so I took a call to a church at Centerville. “BUT, IN ABOUT TWO years they called me hack here. And I said, ‘I’ll come if you'll unite both these churches.’ So that’s what we did, and we call it Galilee-Living Hope.” Rev. Norris united the churches in more ways than one. He had the congre-gation tear down their buildings, move to neutral ground and rebuild using the materials from both churches. Now the old preacher talked a while about the economic condition of his people. “Well, they’s some in pretty good condition and some not. And some’s left and gone to cities. I expect there’s a whole church of people in Houston I pastored once. The farm work’s about played out, and that’s how so many of ‘em made their livings. I don’t know what most of ‘em would do if the Lord didn’t send government help. “On Sundays we won’t have but about 40 head in the congregation. Used to have 75 or 80. Why, one Sunday after a revival I baptized 50 head in Paddock’s Lake. We had a big crowd, a lot of white folks, around that shore. “THE WHITE FOLKS here always treated me good. The man me and my brother bought this farm from, he’s one the best men I ever knew. No, when I get down on my knees to pray, I prays for the white folks just the same as anybody else. “My brother Jacob was two years older than me. He’s gone in. We cleared this farm with axes and burnt the brush and paid for the land. But all my brothers has gone in now. ” Rev. Norris said he wishes he’d kept a record of his work. Judging from the words of praise people who know him heap upon Jefferson Norris, about all he has done for his people, it would be a remarkable record indeed. “I don’t think about retiring,” he told me. “I just love to work for the Lord, and I don’t believe it’d please Him if I quit. I read my Bible and I don’t see where it gives me grounds to retire, no matter how old I am. “I THINK ABOUT old Hezekiah. He was gettin’ ready to go in, you know, but he talked to the Lord and he got 15 years added. (II Kings, 20, 1-7.) “It just seems like the Lord’s got me reserved.” ó |