The Barnwells big red barn was packed full as usual for the Saturday evening get-together. After lots of fun and games, Freddie “Farmer” Barnwell and his wife Jessie were making certain everyone had a bag of popcorn and a cup of apple cider (which came from their apple orchard there on the farm) before the start of everyone’s favorite part of the evening – story time. The younger kids were sitting on the floor up front as usual. Dozens of teens and college-age students, along with lots of adults, filled every chair there and occupied every square inch of space, sitting on hay bales along the walls on each side of the barn.
Jeff Cassidy is always very glad to be home for the weekend with his wife, daughter and two sons. Everyone who knows him is aware how much he loves horseback riding with his family every Saturday before they spend the evening together at the Barnwells Farm get-together. When asked if he would be willing to tell a story this evening, you could tell by his smile that he readily agreed. You also can tell he is a cowboy at heart, because he wore a western hat and boots most of the time. Looking around, he seemed to make eye contact with everyone, his way of letting them know they were important to him and God, thanking them for being there and giving him this opportunity to share some stories.
Jeff said his schedule the past week included a stop at a trucking company. After parking his big rig, he walked over to the front entrance and went in. There was an attractive painting on the wall in the lobby that caught his attention. The painting was of a cowboy lying on his side, bedroll under his left arm, propped up reading his Bible. Driving a tractor-trailer long distances every week and being away from home, made him lonesome for his family, just like cowboys riding the range on long trail drives must have experienced.
He said reading his Bible every evening was his source of comfort when away from his family. It was also his GPS system, keeping him on the right road in life, just like the GPS system on his truck keeps him on the right road when he is traveling. He was also thankful that he had a GPS override that helped him when he encountered a situation on life’s highway where he wasn’t sure which way to turn. Acilia Shepard asked him what was a GPS override system? Jeff smiled and said, “My wife!” When the laughter and “amens” quieted down, he said, “No matter how many times he reads about all the miracles Jesus performed, as especially recorded in the Book of Luke, they never get old, enhancing his faith in Christ. He said God still performs miracles, is evidenced by the story he was going to tell us tonight, regarding a truck driver like himself, someone shared with him years ago.
Late in the evening, a truck driver noticed the car ahead of him starting to drift off the expressway onto the shoulder. Instinctively he knew the driver had fallen asleep. He leaned on the air horn. The loud blast startled the driver of the car who awoke just in time before going down the embankment and got the car back under control. The truck driver noticed a CB two-way radio antenna on the car. He tried to make contact – succeeded.
The driver of the car, a female surgeon, was traveling to spend the weekend with family members. He could easily tell by the quiver in her voice that she was shaking from this near-death experience. She thanked him repeatedly for saving her life. When big-rig driver suggested lady surgeon stay awake by talking to him until she reached her exit, she readily accepted his offer. When she finally reached her exit, almost an hour later, lady surgeon told him she never would have stayed awake without him talking to her. She thanked him again for saving her life with heartfelt praise and gratitude. Jeff said, “there are quite a few instances he was aware of in which God had used truck drivers to bring glory and honor to the Lord along America’s highways!”
He then told us about an accident a few years after that incident, when there was a major crash on the expressway through a large southern city. One of the people involved in that crash was brought into one of the local hospitals in critical condition. The doctors and nurses in the emergency room felt it looked hopeless. Therefore, they were all shocked when the man lying on the operating table, whom they thought was unconscious, struggled to speak, asking whether the voice of the female surgeon he was hearing was the woman whose life he saved a few years ago when she was about to go off the highway. The woman surgeon, totally shocked that this was the same man that had saved her life, grabbed his arm, told him to hold on, now it was her turn to save his life and she did!
You could feel the emotion in 17-year-old Shawnia Garcia’s voice when she said, “That was the most remarkable story I have ever heard.” When she asked him to ‘please tell us some more,’ the barn filled with applause. Jeff was quiet for a few seconds, humbled by the encouraging response, and then continued.
He said even though some people refer to him as a highway cowboy, he is a genuine cowboy at heart, especially since his hero when he was a young boy in the 70s was the King of the Cowboys, Roy Rogers. Roy and his wife Dale Evans, who starred in many of Roy’s movies and most of his TV shows, were at the end of their career, but their movies and TV shows were still popular. Roy was the only Hollywood celebrity among the ten most admired people in the U.S. at one time.
Jeff went on to say, Roy Rogers’ huge star status never went to his head. Crowds in the tens of thousands came out to see him. When he visited a city, he did what was most important to him, go to the children’s wards in the hospitals and visit the orphanages. Roy would even bring his horse Trigger, known as the smartest horse in the movies. He would have Trigger perform for the kids, which brought laughter and joy to countless children. Jeff told us if you can get hold of the Roy Rogers DVD Song of Texas you will see Roy and Trigger perform in the children’s ward at a hospital. It is a scene you will never forget. Roy and Dale didn’t hide their personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
At huge rodeos in front of crowds filled with cheering kids, Roy would speak about getting the idea out of their little heads that there was anything sissy about going to Sunday school and to give a big hand to everyone who’s going to church.
Roy’s career started when his oldest sister got him to go perform at an amateur show in Englewood, California. He was 18 at the time. He sang with a few groups before starting his own group, the Sons of the Pioneers. The Sons of the Pioneers weren’t making much money, but were making enough to pay $9 a week each for room and board, which included three meals a day.
When it looked like Roy and his wife, Grace “Arline” after being married four years, weren’t going to be able to have children, they adopted a baby girl named Cheryl. Later Arline did get pregnant. Their first biological daughter they named Linda. Later, Arline gave birth to a son they named Rusty but she died two days after giving birth. Roy, brokenhearted, was now left with a baby boy and two young daughters to raise. Of course, we use the name Roy here even though at this time in his life, he was still known as Leonard Slye.
God does work in mysterious ways! Jeff told us Roy was at the cleaners one day when a guy named Carter came in. When he noticed Roy was wearing a cowboy hat, he offered him $20 for his hat. Roy surprised by his generous offer, but not willing to part with his hat, asked why he was anxious to buy a cowboy hat. The guy told him Republic Pictures was holding auditions the next day for a singing cowboy, and he was hoping to get picked.
Jeff continued. Roy thought since he played the guitar and could sing, he would go and audition. When Roy got there he discovered it cost 50¢ to audition. Not having any money on him, he got out of line and was leaving when someone stopped him. “Aren’t you Len who sings with the Sons of the Pioneers?” the man asked. The man had seen them sing several times and recognized him. He asked him why he was leaving. When Roy told the man he didn’t have the 50¢ to audition, the man gave him the needed 50¢. Roy won the audition with Republic Pictures saying looking back he believed God obviously had a plan for him.
When Roy discovered that Art Rush, who had given him the 50¢ for the audition, was a personal manager, Roy, who was 26 at the time, asked him to be his manager, honoring his agreement with Art Rush, without a signed contract, for sixty years.
As the song about Roy says – “There was laughter, and there were tears.” Roy asked Dale Evans (who starred in many of his movies) to marry him after losing Arline. Their first child named Robin died at age two. Robin, who had Down syndrome, was deeply loved by Roy and Dale. People encouraged Roy and Dale to put Robin in an institution. They refused, saying “God has a special reason for Robin; if we put her in an institution, we would never know what it is”. Dale Evans’ book Angel Unaware, which she wrote about Robin has been a great source of encouragement to families who have children with special needs.
After the loss of Robin, they adopted four children and took in a foster child named Mimi from when they visited an orphanage in Scotland. Their family grew to include a Native American girl, a Korean orphan, and their Scottish daughter. They loved all nine of the children in their blended family.
Roy and Dale also lost 17-year-old Sammy as the result of an automobile accident. They later lost their daughter, Debbie, who died two weeks before her 12th birthday. The church bus she was riding in blew a tire while coming home from a trip to visit children in an orphanage. So much heartache and tragedy had struck such loving, and good people, yet through it, their faith in God grew stronger.
The reason Jeff knew so many details about Roy Rogers and Dale Evans is he was able to get Roy’s grandson, Rob, now an older adult himself, on the phone. Rob told Jeff about the time he was helping his granddad, whom he loved, unload some frozen turkeys. Rob felt so embarrassed, when at age 10, he dropped one of those frozen turkeys on his grandpa’s foot. Roy let out a yell and was dancing around in pain, something that no bad guy in the movies or on TV had ever inflicted on the “King of the Cowboys.” Rob laughs about it now but certainly didn’t then.
Jeff concluded by singing the song Roy and Dale sang after their TV shows – “Happy Trails to You Until We Meet Again.” He then said, “We will assuredly meet again, if we have a personal faith in Jesus as Lord, as it says in John 3:16.”
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” And John 14:2-3 “In my Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.”
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