J. Frank Norris: The Fascinating, Controversial Life of a Forgotten Figure of the Twentieth Century

By Michael E. Schepis

As one of the most fascinating and sensational personalities, J. Frank Norris, has become a forgotten figure of the twentieth century, as many people today have never heard of him. This fascinating true story takes you from his poverty as a child to the pastor of the largest church in America where he later became friend of presidents and giants of industry.

I would love to have known him personally. He (J. Frank Norris) was a great, positive influence and wonderful example for pastors.
Dr. Charles Stanley, pastor of First Baptist Church, Atlanta, Georgia, and founder of In Touch Ministries

J. Frank Norris, without a doubt, in my own thinking, was the greatest preacher of the twentieth century and I knew a good many of the great oneshe stood head and shoulders above all of them.

Dr. John Rawlings, The Rawlings Foundation Administrator

The life of J. Frank Norris was filled with stories of adventure, courage, faith and dangerthe stuff from which legends are made. He met opposition head on and did not fear any man.
Dr. Homer Ritchie, author and evangelist

During the first half of the Twentieth Century J. Frank Norris was the most dynamic, controversial, and successful pastor of that era. There will never be another like him.
Dr. James O. Combs, Provost, Louisiana Baptist University

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jan 12, 2012
• ISBN: 9781449732967

Michael E. Schepis

Mike Schepis earned a bachelor’s degree from Friends University and a master of education and educational specialist degrees from Wichita State University. He is a former teacher and educational administrator. He and his wife live in Dallas, Texas.

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Contents

Foreword

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Epilogue

Personal Note

Notes

To the memory of my father,

Michael S. Schepis

Foreword

THE NORRIS FACTOR — by Dr. James O. Combs

Many things can be said about J. Frank Norris. He was the greatest preacher of the first half of the twentieth century. He was also one of the most controversial, even cantankerous public figures of that same era. But, who was he? How did he build the first mega church in America? What legacy did he leave? How and why he did what he did will unfold in this outstanding book by Mike Schepis. As you read this valuable, carefully referenced volume, J. Frank Norris, you will find an in-depth picture of the preacher sometimes referred to as the Texas Tornado.

At the age of sixteen I first heard Dr. Norris preach in a packed church in San Antonio in 1944. He did not use the usual pulpit, but stood tall and with poise, his hands in his side coat pockets as he began to speak. His voice volume could be a short commanding sound or a soft whisper. Quick hand gestures punctuated his sentences. He was dramatic and forceful as he proclaimed the gospel, an orator who understood how to use a peroration to stimulate the minds of his hearers. He held us spell bound for well over an hour.

Several years later I enrolled in the Bible Baptist Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. During my year and a half as a resident student Dr. Norris usually spoke at a morning assembly when he would teach the Word of God, verse by verse and chapter by chapter, frequently quoting without notes. The hundreds of students there were always fascinated by his presentations.

J. Frank Norris was talented, fearless, dynamic, controversial, enthusiastic, jealous, clever, and arrogant. He was a tireless preacher, evangelist, author, editor, broadcaster, visionary, world traveler, diplomat, and politician. He made many friends and many enemies. His friends while recognizing his eccentricities, viewed him as a courageous man of God with obvious strengths. Norris preached wherever people would gather—theaters, taverns, nightclubs, businesses, schools, street corners, and baseball parks. He pastored the First Baptist Church of Fort Worth and the Detroit Baptist Temple at the same time twelve hundred miles apart. These two congregations had over twenty-five thousand members which made it the largest ministry in the country. During his career he edited his own tabloid newspaper which developed into the most widely circulated religious journal in the south with approximately eighty thousand subscribers. As a pioneer radio preacher he had broadcasts over twenty-seven stations reaching most of the nation with his rhetoric.

As a preaching politician, Norris appeared to relish his contact with the world’s great leaders. He carried on correspondence with numerous individuals with influence in Washington, D. C., although one gets the impression that it was largely at his own initiative. He did have personal contact with Presidents Hoover, Roosevelt, Truman, and Eisenhower. While overseas he had meetings with such foreign dignitaries as David Lloyd George, Winston Churchill, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, the Lord Mayor of London, Benito Mussolini, and Pope Pius XII.

He left a great legacy! Read on!

Acknowledgments

Encouragement and assistance in the completion of this book came from many friends and acquaintances who knew Dr. J. Frank Norris personally. My appreciation and thanks go to all of them.

The most encouragement for this project came from the love of my life and dear wife, Kathleen, who encouraged me throughout the project. Her positive outlook on life never ceases to amaze and inspire me.

Special thanks also go to:

My parents Michael S.(1925-2008) and Marcella Schepis for sharing their valuable memories.

Vickie Bryant, executive director of the Heritage Collection at Arlington Baptist College, Arlington, Texas, who spent so much time helping with the research sources.

Dr. Homer G. Ritchie, pastor of First Baptist Church from 1952 to 1981, Fort Worth, Texas, for personal encouragement and phonograph records made available at Arlington Baptist College.

All the employees who helped me with research at the University of Texas-Arlington Library and Special Collections Department.

All photos are courtesy of The Heritage Collection, Arlington Baptist College, unless otherwise noted.

Introduction

J. Frank Norris was one of the most fascinating and controversial figures in the first half of the twentieth century. All who knew him would agree that he was one of the most charismatic, gifted speakers in America in his time. Reverend Dr. Norris, as a fundamentalist preacher, was also known to be a great man admired by his loyal supporters, who had friendships with leaders of governments and business—or a despicable character who was persecuted and hated by his enemies. This book is meant to introduce this famous character to the vast number of people living today who have not heard of him. Those who knew him personally or were familiar with his life will be reminded of the legacy of his influence on today’s fundamentalism.

This is about the man who was J. Frank Norris—what he said and what he did. Most of what is written here comes from the men who were the closest to him, because they knew him best. Every attempt is made to not give place to personal conclusions, judgments, or criticisms of the motives, methods, or personality of Norris by the author, who will leave that to others. It would, of course, be impossible to include every incident or every view of him in a single volume. But here are a few of the highlights in the life of the man who pastored the two largest churches in America, twelve hundred miles apart, at the same time for many years when travel was not as convenient as it is today.

Chapter 1

From Alabama To Texas

(1877–1898)

John Franklin Norris was born September 18, 1877, near Dadeville, Alabama, to James Warner and Mary Davis Norris. Dadeville was a small town about eighty miles southeast of Birmingham in Tallapoosa County. Andrew Jackson defeated the Creek Indians in a battle there in 1814. More than eight hundred Upper Creek warriors died defending their homeland against the troops of General Jackson.

The young Norris couple and their infant son lived in a modest country home. When Frank was only three months old, he was stricken with diphtheria. The neighbors came together to comfort and help, as was customary out in the country. They said, Mary, prepare for the worst; the doctor said there’s no chance that your baby will survive. They laid him out, and they saw that he was black. They thought he was gone. She went into an adjoining room, and there alone prayed, God, no, no, no—he’s not gone. She went back in the other room and saw life in him. Frank had survived the first serious crisis in his life.(1)

The Norris family moved to Pike City, Arkansas, a hundred miles southwest of Little Rock. Warner bought a piece of land, but soon decided there was no future for his family in Arkansas.(2) From here the family moved back to Alabama, to the city of Columbiana just a few miles south of Birmingham. Two more children were born into the Norris family, a girl named Hattie and another son, named Dorie. Poverty was a way of life for most sharecroppers, and so it was for the family. Most of the poor in the South after the Civil War had no choice but to turn to this way of life, which usually bound them to the landlord in perpetual debt.

It was during this time that Warner Norris began to drink as often as he could get a little money together. According to E. Ray Tatum, Each year he managed, with the help of his family, to somehow get the seed into the ground. Generally this was with borrowed money, and when, with months of tedious hard labor the crop was gathered, there was never enough to go around. The naked barren poverty continued. More and more, Warner turned habitually to drink. He was not a man who occasionally drank too much, but a man who was altogether obsessed with drink. For years he had but one purpose in life—to drink. The guilt of his waste, the shame which his drinking brought to those around him, and the irritating benevolence of his wife, only added to his misery. He drank not only to the discomfort of his family, but to their utter abuse; Warner Norris seemed to have cared little for the earthly relief and welfare of his family. Often he would physically abuse those around him.(3)

The heavy drinking and deprivation became so great that one night Frank had seen and experienced all that he could take. Even at a young age, he became so upset with the tears he had seen his mother shed that he thought he would do something to help her. Frank’s longtime friend Louis Entzminger recounts the story in this way:

On Christmas eve when the boy was seven years old he decided to empty his father’s supply of liquor. When his father found the liquor was gone he came out to the barn and found Frank had broken the bottles and emptied the jug. He said, Frank, did you empty my liquor? Frank looked at him, and said, Yes, I did it because I love you, and I love mother. The father was so enraged, as liquor will enrage a man, and he took a heavy blacksnake whip and nearly beat the seven-year old boy to death, and would have but for his mother’s throwing herself between the boy and the enraged father. His nose was broken, his head was lacerated, and his body was cut from head to foot. The doctor came and bandaged him up. The next day was Christmas, and what a Christmas!

His father was a very tender hearted man, as most drinking men are, and when he came to himself and saw the lacerated body of his little boy he fell down on his knees and kissed him and said, Daddy didn’t do it! Daddy didn’t do it! Liquor did it! Then he prayed a prayer that was etched in the boy’s memory for the rest of his life. O, God, liquor has ruined my life, and my home. Take this boy that I have been so cruel to and send him up and down the land to smite the awful curse that wrecked his father’s life and broke his mother’s heart.(4)

Frank recalled an incident from his childhood when he had experienced the uncomfortable feelings associated with poverty in Columbiana. Years later he related what happened:

I was about eight years old, one day I was standing on the porch of the Public School in Columbiana, two boys came up, one was twelve and the other one fourteen, each one of them had on a nice suit of clothes, a nice overcoat. I had on a little cotton suit, no overcoat, and the coat was tight around me—these boys, sons of a banker—they came up, looked at me, and they said, Your coat is too little—well I knew it. Then one of them pointed his finger at me while all the boys gathered around and said, Your daddy is a drunkard and mine is a banker. I turned, went into the school and buried my face in my hands. The dear school teacher came up to me, put her arm around my shoulders and said, Frank, what is the matter? I couldn’t say a word. She said, You must be sick. I am going to send you home.

I fairly flew home—when I got home, mother said, Frank, are you sick? I said, Yes. She said, I’ll give you some medicine. No, no, no, I am not sick. Well, she said, what are you crying about? I can’t tell you. I wouldn’t tell her what happened. But that night after I had gone to my room she came in and said, Tell mother what is the matter? I begged hard not to tell her, But she said, I must know, so we may cry together. I said, Mother I couldn’t help it. And I told her what had happened, how those finely dressed bankers’ sons had come up, pointed their finger at me and said, Your daddy is a drunkard—poor daddy was in a room drunk then. Mother said, as she put her tender arms around me, brushed away my tears, Son, it is all right, someday you are going to wear good clothes—someday you will make a man—someday God will use you. I said, Mother, please don’t make me go back to school. She said, You don’t have to go back; mother will teach you. And it was a great blessing to me—I read all the histories, memorized whole chapters in the Bible. Now wasn’t it a great blessing to me?(5)

Life had become so difficult for the family in Alabama that the decision was made to move to Texas. The family boarded a train for the grueling trip to the city of Hubbard. E. Ray Tatum tells the story:

For three nights and three days the little group had been confined to whatever rest and comfort they could find on the hard, rocky coach seats. It had been a difficult trip. But there had been no dread of the trip. The few earthly goods that could not be brought with them had been sold or traded on indebtedness. The purchase of the tickets had taken most of the remaining amount. Yet, there were no regrets. Life in Alabama had been hard for the young family. There were scars to show for it. In Texas there would be little more to look forward to, but it would at least be a new beginning for Warner Norris. He could start again. Free from the smoky holes and the hardness of the steel mills; from the sickness and rebellion which enslaved him. Warner Norris had not intended to squander the meager resources he had in the pursuit of drink. He had made many resolutions, and yet, it always happened. The habit had grown and grown. More and more it had come to control the man and more and more he had lost control of himself. At first his wife had reacted with violence to him, but then in the recent months, she had persisted to get him to move west. If we could go to Texas, she would say. Warner Norris had listened until he could put her off no longer. Any little resolution he had left was gone, and at last they had the price of the tickets."(6)

Frank later described one example of the many hardships experienced on this train trip to Texas. It happened when the family was crossing the Mississippi River:

We got off the train at Hubbard when I was 11 years old—it took us three days to come from Alabama because of changes and slow trains. Indeed, it was a slow train through Arkansas—no steel bridges across the Mississippi, and we crossed by ferry, and had to wade in the mud on the Arkansas side, and I had on a pair of new boots and lost one of my boots in the Arkansas mud. Dad and Mother each had a younger child in their arms, and I was squalling my head off when a great big, burly negro pulled me out of the mud. I tried to tell him my boot was in the mud, and it’s still there. I never knew his name but when I get to heaven I want to thank him for pulling me out of the mud. I shall never forget the day we got to Hubbard—I was 11 years old—and we had eaten up all the grub we cooked in Alabama in the three-day’s journey, and we had solid fat meat, and I still don’t like fat meat.7

The Norris family settled into a modest frame country home as sharecroppers in Hubbard in Hill County, located about twenty-five miles northeast of Waco and seventy miles south of Fort Worth. Hubbard was formally organized when the St. Louis Southwestern Railway of Texas located a station depot there in 1881, which was just seven years before the Norris family move. Residents held a meeting to organize the town, and former Governor Richard B. Hubbard was present. The town was named in his honor. A post office opened in the same year. Later, the Trinity and Brazos Valley Railway intersected the Cotton Belt at Hubbard. When the city drilled for water in 1895, the drillers found hot mineral water, and the town became a health resort. One resort was still standing until 1980. Hubbard’s population during the time that Frank lived there was about five hundred and peaked at 2,702 in 1925. Today there are about fifteen hundred residents. The most famous person to reside in Hubbard other than Frank was Baseball Hall of Fame member Tristram E. (Tris) Speaker, a left-handed centerfielder who had a lifetime batting average of .345 and 3,514 hits. He played from 1907 to 1928 with the Boston Red Sox and the Philadelphia Athletics.(8)

By this time Warner Norris was described as, a tall man, whose body was hardened through labor. His blue eyes, fading and pale, showed age prematurely, as did the unevenly trimmed hair and long mustache show streaks of white, pallid and gray. His body and soul told of wear and even his clothes spoke of abuse. Mary Davis Norris was a small woman with deep and powerful blue eyes. Her black hair was neatly pulled into a knot behind her head which added to the oval appearance of her small round face. One could tell at a glance that she was a resolute woman who was persistent. Her face was marked with trials of discipline and difficulty; yet she bore a peaceful gaiety, the appearance of youth. There was the eagerness and vitality of life very much present in her movements. She had deep within her the peaceful serenity of faith.(9)

With the family settled into their new surroundings, Warner Norris began to work in the fields of Hill County in Texas with the hope of greater success than they had experienced in Alabama. But his drinking continued to bring financial hardship to the family. "Mary Davis tried everything her timid mind could ponder to hinder