Sharon Coffin

Singing in the Shadows: Edited by Sharon Oliver Coffin Sharon Coffin

Within these pages, there are over 200 poems which were written during the thirty-seven years of Reverend Jerry Lee Oliver's Ministry. He loved his family and friends, and he spent time counseling families, and encouraging the youth in the Community. Many of these poems reveal his emotions at the time they were written, as he helped these families through their trials and tribulations. There are happy ones, - sad ones, - hopeful ones, and religious ones. In fact, many speak on 'Life's problems' and how to cope with them. He especially loved Christmas and wrote about all of the Holidays. Of the group of 200 poems that we now have,the oldest dated one was written in 1933, and there are 56 which have no date. He probably wrote at least one poem per year most years. His most prolific years of writing were the WWII years 1939 through 1945. It was in those years that he wrote about his concern for Service Men, - World Peace, - Freedom, - and the Brotherhood of Man. These concerns seemed to be of great importance to him at that time. Many of these poems are based of events of his life, such as "My Childhood Home,"-"The Pea Ridge School," -"When Tom and I Were Boys," remembering his happy childhood. Both "The Presence," and "My Call," reveal his feelings as a young man and his call to enter the ministry in 1914. Dad wrote about his own father, "The Farmer," who was a farmer for all of his life, beginning in the 1800's. He worked the land with a horse and a mule, from daylight until dark to provide for his family." In later years he wrote of his father in the poem "The Pilgrim at Sunset," and read it at his funeral. He wrote of his Mother in poems, "In Remembrance," "To Honor Mother," and "A Funeral Prayer." In "A Call and A Romance," he wrote of a young man at Tarleton College, who became a minister with his help and guidance, and the two were always close. "A Call and A Romance" is a story of Hayden Edwards and his wife, Jessie. And later, "That Friend of Mine" revealed