50 years later, influence of Tarleton
Baptist Student Union still strong
___By George Henson
___Staff Writer
___Many things have changed in the last half century, but the love of a group of college students for their BSU directors has not.
___They no longer are college students. Most are retired--some from ministry, some social work, some from politics, some from other walks of life. Some no longer walk in this life, but have passed on to heaven.
___The love and affection of those who were at Tarleton State College in Stephenville from 1951 to 1952 for Leta and Yandall Woodfin has not retired, however. In fact, it has been revitalized.
___J.R. Chaney, or Roline as he was known in his younger days, said the chance to slow down and reflect on life may be one reason for the reunion of some of that BSU group recently held at the Woodfins' Fort Worth home.
___"Part of it was probably guilt, that we didn't do it earlier," Chaney said. "When we get older, we reflect back on our lives and the people who are meaningful in our lives, and you want to give them the appreciation they are due.
___"This reunion was not so much of our group getting together--if you don't see or speak to each other for 50 years, those ties can't be that strong--but rather an appreciation to Yandall and Leta for the impact they made on our lives," Chaney said.
___Once they were together again, however, a feeling of community was revived instantly, many said.
___"Even 50 years later, it was almost like a family homecoming," said Pat Murphy, who served as BSU president during the Woodfins' tenure at Tarleton.
___"It was liked picking up a conversation we had put a semicolon on long ago," agreed Ernest Woods of Fielder Road Baptist Church in Arlington.
___This was a spirit Yandall Woodfin recognized as well. "It was like nothing had happened, except that we had all been enriched. The texture of our lives had been enriched, harmonized and integrated. It was an intimacy that didn't need to be rebuilt."
___While contact had been anything but constant, most of the group had maintained some sort of contact with the Woodfins, their BSU leaders for 19 months--from January 1951 through July 1952.
___The BSU actually was the house where the Woodfins lived. There was not a separate building in those days. The Woodfins, only a few years older than their charges, lived in the back of the home, and the BSU met in the front.
___Woods remembered that sometimes the men would challenge Mrs. Woodfin's hospitality.
___"We would keep Yandall up playing ping pong until we were so tired we couldn't move our legs anymore," he said. "We had to just lean up against the walls and reach."
___A lot of ministry took place around the ping pong table at the Tarleton BSU in those years. "Yandall used to say, 'The kids around here don't know a lick of Scripture, but you can't beat them in ping pong,'" joked Harold Lewallen of First Baptist Church in Odessa.
___Woodfin's wit was another thing that stuck with the students after half a century.
___"Yandall is a very unusual person," said Mary Ann Rowan of Elgin. "He is an intellectual and yet at the same time a comedian. There is something very spiritual about humor if it's good humor."
___The thing that endeared the Woodfins most to their students, however, was the way they helped them mature spiritually.
___"I learned a lot about intensive prayer," said Betty Hale of Houston. "One particular time that I remember, someone's father collapsed at one of the church services. We went back to the BSU and prayed. It was a time of intensive prayer like I had never known before. It was one of those magic moments in your life where you learn something that you will always remember."
___Rowan met her husband, Robert, during her BSU days, but he wasn't the only thing she carried with her from the BSU.
___"I'd been in the Baptist church all my life and had heard a lot about 'love one another' but hadn't honestly seen much of it in my church," she said. "There was a reality in the Christian walk I hadn't seen before. It was inspiring and exciting. I can say now that what I saw there was a real relationship that was possible with Jesus Christ that I had not experienced before."
___The Woodfins "set up an environment that kept our hearts warm to God's leadership," Chaney said.
___Murphy, who had surrendered to ministry prior to his days at Tarleton, said the Woodfins offered crucial guidance at an important time in his life. "They gave me a strong base that prepared me for everything that came afterward."
___Woods, who was not a student at Tarleton but a Stephenville resident the same age, said the BSU was a "home away from home" even for non-students.
___"I was a new Christian when I was with that group, and it deepened my commitment and started my growth in the Lord," he said.
___Woodfin remembers with a great deal of fondness the vespers services held every evening at 6 p.m. "They were completely student-planned and student-led, and they were marvelous, just beautiful."
___As pleasant as those memories are, Woodfin is even more pleased by the way the lives of those college students have unfolded. "They have all been through trials, but they have all kept the faith," he said. "That's the thrilling thing."
___A second get-together is planned for the first Saturday in October. Those involved in the BSU at Tarleton during the Woodfins' ministry are asked to contact Robert Rowan at 117 Honey Tree Lane, Elgin 78621 for more information.
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