Tribute to Margaret Wood Cain Alexander

Sunday, June 23, 2013 Old Time Gospel Church in Eldon, Missouri dedicated the morning worship service as a tribute to Margaret Wood Cain Alexander (Mom) to thank her for her many years of Christian service to the church and community.  It was a complete surprise to Mom, not an easy task in itself as several of her children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and extended family drove several miles to attend! 

Many participated in the service sharing ways Mom had influenced their Christian life and several generations of their families' lives.  I gave the following and have been asked to publish so those not in attendance might read it. ………

Most of you know Mom from her activities at church.  I would like to tell you about the REAL Margaret, the early Marg at home.  I met Mom in the spring of 1953.  I’ve known her just over 60 years.  Not sure how that adds up, since I can’t be that old?

These are some things that stand out in my memories.  As young children, we didn’t always understand the meaning behind what we were taught, but we did try to live it.

Mom taught a Sunday School class of teenagers and they were at our house a lot after church for fun activities.  Peggy Mace, Ellen Cain, David, Connie Jo, and Eddy Cotton, Margie Gampher, Virgil Sherman Holder and several others who continue to serve God today.   Mom spent hours studying her Sunday School lessons and planning activities for the group. There was always fun and laughter when they got together and I looked up to each of them.  Thanks to Mom I remember always having older Christian role models around. 

Mom and Peggy operated a laundry out of our home allowing Mom to stay home with me until I was old enough to go to school.  I knew that had to be a good Christian job.  We’d even go to church and sing about it.

            Bringing in the Sheets, Bringing in the Sheets,

            We shall come rejoicing bringing in the Sheets!

I never really heard Mom or Peggy rejoicing, but they must have enjoyed it.  After all, they did it every day!  I do remember some shouting.  Sometimes when Peggy would feed the laundry through the rollers on the wringer machine, they would grab her hand clean up to her elbow!  I’d hear her shout, then slam the release lever on the top and yank her arm back out.  Maybe that’s why she has such long, lean arms and fingers?

Mom was an inspiration to us, and we tried to do what she taught.  We heard that so many people “Played at having church” and that was a bad thing.  So, Bonnie and I never “Played” church, we “HAD” church.  We sang, we preached and we prayed.  Shortly after we were saved in a revival at Flatwoods Baptist Church under Brother Mel Burnett, we joined the church and were scheduled to be baptized.  The next time we “Had” church, we decided to take it one step further and have a real baptizing.  It was a warm Sunday afternoon and Aunt Flora and Mom were inside fixing lunch.  Bonnie and I (still in our church clothes) were outside having church, beside the “river”.  In our yard, the “river” was a huge mud hole in our driveway!  Our “River” wasn’t deep enough to actually baptize, so we had to take turns laying down on our back while the other one poured the muddy water over our heads as we said, “In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, I baptize you”.  After a few times we got tired of that, and just lay down on our stomachs and “swam”.  Mom came out to tell us lunch was ready and did some shouting of her own!  They wouldn’t even let us come back in the house.  Made us go around back, take off our good Sunday dresses and hosed us down!  My dress was never the same, and it took forever to get that brown mud out of Bonnies waste long platinum blonde curly hair.

Mom always said “the family that prayed together stayed together” and it was very important to “keep the dust off the Bible”.  We blessed every meal, prayed each night before bed and any other time someone was sick or had a problem.  Our big family Bible lay on the coffee table.  Every time we walked past it, we looked to make sure that Bible was dust free.  To guarantee if remained dust free, I would automatically run my hand over it as I walked by!

Mom never hesitated when someone needed her help.  If someone’s home had been burned, she found some way to help or something to donate.  If someone needed help moving or needed to borrow something, if we had what they needed, it was offered.  One rainy night coming home from Flatwoods, the Holder family was in a horrible wreck.  Orphey went through the windshield cutting her face terribly.  We came up on the wreck just after it happened.  As the two cars were waiting for the police Mom got Orphey in our car to rush her down to the Tuscumbia Hospital.  As it had been raining before we left for church, Mom had used her favorite chenille robe as a raincoat on the way to the car.  Without hesitation, Mom gave it to Orphey to wrap up in and catch the blood. The robe was ruined forever. 

Lucille and Wes Templeton lived in the house next to ours.  One day while Wes was doing some woodworking outside, little Ellen ran up behind him just as he was lowering the electric Skill Saw.  Cut through her skull into her brain.  Lucille came running in our house scared to death Ellen was going to die.  Mom dropped what she was doing, grabbed her keys, some towels and took Lucille and Ellen to the hospital.  God was with them on that trip.  Mom got a cops attention and he escorted them to the hospital at top speed!   Mom was ready and willing to do whatever was needed.  Willing to do the right thing without thinking about payback.

When Ellen and Sonny were first married, they lived with us.  Later, Uncle Toby’s daughter Judy Cain needed a place to stay when she first moved back to Missouri to be close to family, so she lived with us.  Bob Bowling lost his home and needed a place to set a trailer, so it was soon up on the hill.   Aunt Mable needed care and her trailer was set next to Mom and Dad’s.  As more were needed, they were added.  Grandma Wood and Grandma Cain needed care at different times and came to live with Mom and Dad.  When Daddy got so sick, Mom hardly left his side to care for him.  If someone needed a ride to church, or to town or the doctor, Mom was willing.  Never did I hear her say, “But if I use our gas (or food or whatever) how will we get by?”  She trusted God to meet her needs.

When Daddy (Reverend Gene Cain )was called to preach, we began having church in our home.  Every Sunday, Sunday evening and Wednesday evening, Mom would open our home as a church.  The house was cleaned, chairs were brought in, coffee tables taken out, pulpit was brought in and church was held.  After the church funds built up and some land was received, we started physically building the new Old Path church building.  Mom and Dad would work hard all day at Walnut Woodworking, come home and grab a sandwich, load up the tools and we would all head over to the church grounds and work construction until dark.  We would build all day Saturday and then head home to set up Mom’s house for services on Sunday. 

Tho Mom and Dad could never have children of their own, God provided them with children to love.  Ellen was the first adopted child, I came at the age of 18 months, Bonnie stayed a couple of years, and Marilyn, Mary and Judy were later added to our family.  Later still grandchildren were welcomed with open arms.  Unlike today’s foster programs, Mom and Dad were not subsidized by the state to keep us.  They did it out of love.

For years, Mom was the secretary and/or treasurer of the church.  As secretary, she would take the minutes at each business meeting and write correspondence needed to invite preachers in for revivals, anything needed for the association, ordinations, etc.  The treasurer may seem like a simple job, but there is a lot more to it than meets the eye.  Sure she counted the money each Sunday and made the deposits, but she also paid the bills and bought all the church supplies for the kitchen, cleaning and bathrooms.  Every year for the Christmas program, Mom would buy the sacks and candy and fruit for the children’s treat bags.  She would count the regular church families and add to that for guests, etc.  We would have sacks sitting everywhere around the house as each individual item was counted out and put in the sacks.  Then each bag was tied up with ribbon or yarn to make them pretty so the little people would get a special something after the program.

I can’t remember a time when Mom didn’t teach a Sunday School Class.  She would spend hours reading, studying and preparing to teach those classes. 

There was always a singing group.  Tho the group dynamics changed as people came and went, Mom was always in the thick of it.  When she wasn’t actually a singer, she would run the sound system; operate the tape player so the group could listen to their practices or so they could be shared with nursing homes and hospital sick rooms.  When practice was at our house, she would make something for dessert and coffee and tea to serve.  She would spend hours typing the songs to put in the group’s song books.  That was long before electric typewriters, copiers or computers.  She used an old black upright typewriter with carbon paper to produce pages and pages of songs and make sure each book had everything in the same order.  The singing groups traveled to many different churches all over the state, and it was Mom who made sure everything that was needed got loaded.  Music books, microphones and stands, instruments, amplifiers, etc .  Mom made sure we were ready.

When Old Path started having Third Sunday Singings with dinner on the ground Mom’s work increased.  On Saturday she would bake several pies and cook something as a main entrée and make sure there were enough plates, napkins, silver ware, coffee, and tea for the meal.  Then on Sunday, after teaching Sunday School and attending regular church, she would oversee laying out the dinner and make a special effort to assure all guests were invited to join in the meal even tho they hadn’t brought food.  After the meal, she went around making her list asking everyone she knew who might have a special to sing or request to make so no one was left out.  She then MC’d the singing keeping things moving in a logical and timely manner. 

Was Mom perfect?  No.  Did she ever get angry? Or upset? Or Frustrated? Or Hurt?  Yes.  But in all the years I’ve known her, I never once heard her take the Lord’s name in vain.  Never have I heard her cuss in any way.  I’ve never seen her drink or smoke or gamble.  Why? Because Mom didn’t believe any of these things showed the world what being a Christian was about.  Most of the time, Mom juggled several of these “Christian jobs” at the same time taking up several hours each week.  I never heard her complain.

Years ago, Lucille Cotton was choir director for Flatwoods Baptist Church.  One year to inspire us, she bought everyone lapel pins.  They were a stylized “WW” pin and we wore them when the choir sang.  The “WW” stood for Willing Workers.  Whether you call her Mom, or Grandma, Aunt Margie or Sister Marg, Margaret Gertrude Wood Cain Alexander has spent her life being just that.  A Willing Worker for God, always striving to do what she thought God wanted her to do.  What she felt was the right thing to do.

For that we say Thank You, we Love You and may God continue to Bless you and keep you in His care.

This photo is of the "First Generation" of girl's Mom helped raise.  We are missing Judy Jones in this photo as she was the first to leave this earth for a better home.

Left to Right:  Marilyn Jones Whittle, Mary Jones McGuire, Ellen Marie Cain, Peggy Mace, Dotty Dusenberry Wood, Bonnie (B.J.)  Friedly

Orville Alexander & Margaret Alexander