Elsie & The Pentecostals

By Ron Johnson and Janice Rasmussen

Young widow Elsie and her four children live dysfunctional lives inside the abusive world of Pentecostalism. Co-written by Ron Johnson, author of Televangelist and The Jim Bakker Foodbucket Fanpage.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Golden Calf Books
• Release date: Dec 24, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223899549

Ron Johnson

Ron Johnson is currently serving as president of the North Florida Folk Network (NFFN) and he writes a semi-daily blog for the Florida Times-Union ("Today in Florida History"?). He is a regular participant at the Florida Folk Festival, Barberville and the Will McLean Festivals and he writes and records his own original songs, many of them about Florida. He won the 2011 Will McLean Song of the Year with his tune "Rescue Train, "? and has won several song contests in Fernandina and St. Augustine.

Book preview

Elsie &

The Pentecostals

Janice Rasmussen

Ron Johnson

Golden Calf Books

Copyright © 2023 Janice Rasmussen & Ron Johnson

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

Published by Golden Calf Books

Cover Art Concept: Ron Johnson

Cover Art Designer: Marko Mirkovic

e-book formatting by bookow.com

Table of Contents

Part I Roy

ST PATRICK'S DAY 1957

GOOD MEMORIES FADE AWAY

TORN APART

IN THE BEGINNING

CHANGING TIMES

WORLD WAR TWO: A PENTECOSTAL'S TOUR

WELCOME TO THE CENTRAL VALLEY

HOMEWARD BOUND

TOUCHED BY A PROPHET

SPINNING WHEELS

WICHITA NIGHTMARE

JUNE 1957: OFF THE RAILS

MICHIGAN SUMMER

Part II Andy

LONG BEACH: NEW BEGINNINGS

BETHANY CHAPEL

COLONIAL TABERNACLE

BELMONT AND THE LONG UNRAVEL

Part III Bob

MEET THE DEVIL

ROBBIE THE RODENT

TRAINWRECK

Part IV The Copps

TERMINAL WIDOW

A HOUSE DIVIDED

EPILOGUE

About the Author

Part I

Roy

ST PATRICK'S DAY 1957

Six days a week, the stuffy Redondo Avenue dance hall is a place of sin. On the seventh day, it transforms into a church—Roy Rasmussen's church. Nothing changes but the name. The haggard men and women seated inside resemble their surroundings: unwashed, thrown together, rented. That doesn't matter to Pastor Roy—he wants sinners like them. Why preach to the choir?

He's already into his morning sermon, having wrapped the song service ten minutes ago. Song service is where Roy shines—he spent years on the road singing hymns with his wife Elsie, currently seated at the piano behind him. Sermons were never his strong suit and now boredom's creeping in to the sinners. Fortunately, Pentecostals like Roy have a solution for that: tongues. Wild, flapping tongues, speaking the divine language of the Holy Spirit. Roy's tongue will fly at the sermon's grand finale, but for now he's focused on the message: Jesus Christ has come to save you.

As the sermon continues, bleary eyes are wiped. Mouths yawn. Roy changes course, raising his voice to drive the sermon heavy. The friendly Christian offer of salvation turns to condemnation: decline Jesus and suffer the consequence. Roy's sharp voice bounces off the walls of the stuffy dance hall. Carefree sinner attitudes have thickened—he's straightened 'em out but now they need a payoff. The Holy Spirit stirs inside of Roy—tongues are imminent. The end is near.

A bright flash from the corner catches Roy's eye. He looks to the flash but it slides away. More flashes appear. Light fills the dance hall—the church is sparkling. Roy's head suddenly fills with extreme pressure—it's about to pop. He lurches heavily over the pulpit, eyes askew and unfocused. Elsie sees her husband struggling and knows something's wrong.

Don't you people see him? Roy points to the rear, Jesus is there in the corner—look in the light!

The sinners twist around in their chairs but see nothing. They hold their breath: Is this part of the show?

Elsie, I'm blind!

Roy collapses to the floor. Church elders—Roy's most trusted men—rush to the pulpit, but he can't be raised. They quickly load him into a car for transport to nearby Bethany Chapel, home of the mighty Prophet David Schoch. That's where he'll be treated—hands and prayers heal all.

The elders screech to a stop outside Bethany Chapel, rushing inside to request the Prophet's healing. The Prophet races out to the waiting car. Roy's eldest daughter Lana watches from the back seat as Prophet Schoch and the elders lay hands on the slumped body of her dad. The men pray loudly—unapologetically—for healing. Pentecostal tongues rise to the heavens.

***

In our small apartment, my brothers and I watch my favorite cartoon: Popeye and Bluto. Dad left for church three hours ago, leaving me in charge of four-year-old Mark and ten-year-old Gilbert, who is sick. I'm Janice—eleven years old—and I thought it very unusual for dad to let us stay home from church. Maybe he wasn't feeling well either, or maybe he was just softening. He'd finally taken us off the never-ending road of evangelism to chart a normal life here in Long Beach—a life of stability and television viewing. We even managed to complete a full year of school without leaving for a new town. Life for young children is good.

The front door explodes open with church men carrying dad's weak body. They shuffle past me and deposit dad on the couch. I watch him moan in agony.

Jesus, heal me. Jesus, heal me, he mumbles over and over.

Mom arrives, falling to her knees and telling dad she loves him—that he's going to be alright. I know something's terribly wrong and start crying.

The men pray over Roy's limp body on the couch. Their combined voices grow louder; they know if they make a louder din—give more glory to God—the chance of a miracle increases. But given Roy's dire condition, they also know something extra is needed for this miracle to occur. They need the Prayer Warrior—they need big Evelyn.

Three-hundred-fifty pound Evelyn Rasmussen, married to dad's brother Albin, was a mighty lady preacher in the church world—a big gun in the holy roller terms of Pentecostalism. She and Albin evangelized on the Jesus circuit just as we had for the last couple years, but Albin & Evelyn were far better at it. Especially Evelyn.

The church men's something extra arrives as Evelyn walks into the apartment, a whoosh of air carrying behind her. The men step aside.

Leave him, Satan! she growls. Her powerful hands wrap around dad's arm. Get out of this man, Devil!

Evelyn cocks her head to the church men, Place his feet up like Elijah the Prophet! The men move quickly, straightening dad's legs on the couch and placing a pillow under his feet. Evelyn leans over Roy's weak body and begins her Pentecostal tongue gibberish, howling and bucking like a wounded animal as frothy spit collects like cake frosting at the corners of her mouth.

I watch the Pentecostal circus unfold as precious time ticks away. Can't these idiots understand that my dad needs a hospital, and quickly?

"Get up, Roy. You will stand now, Roy. Stand and be healed!"

Evelyn's butt sticks in my face while she barks instructions to my dying father. I feel a strong urge to smack it but want no attention from these gross old loonies in our apartment. I'm eleven—they must be in their hundreds.

After a torturous hour of prayers and barking, dad's condition hasn't improved. Something terrible has blinded him and he's barely breathing. Finally realizing how dire the situation is, church man Don Whelan pulls the plug on the magic act and instructs Evelyn to call an ambulance.

In 1957, apartment building telephones operated on a 'party line' system, meaning multiple people could be on the line at once. If you had an emergency, you had to cut in and make your request. Evelyn cuts in heavy:

We need an ambulance at 435 Walnut. Come quick, a man is dying!

Ten long minutes pass before ambulance men enter our apartment. They immediately recognize how serious dad's condition is, loading him on a stretcher and moving as one to the front door. Dad's arm catches on the door jamb; the ambulance driver deftly folds it across his chest and exits. The ambulance takes off down the street with sirens wailing. I run behind, screaming.

Dad was two miles from the Veteran's Hospital when he fell at 11am. At Bethany Chapel, that distance was four miles. From our apartment, five. In their impassioned drive to save Roy with prayer, the loonies drove him further from healing. It took a full four hours before he arrived at the hospital.

***

Dusk approaches. I've spent the last couple hours alone in dad’s car, crying and begging Jesus to heal him. In our apartment, my brother Gilbert bargains with Jesus: a lifetime of tithing in exchange for dad's life. I've not seen dad or mom for hours now. Exhausted and hungry, I leave the car and head inside. Dad will be okay, I assure myself. He'll be home tonight.

I tune back in to my favorite cartoon: Popeye and Bluto's eternal struggle for Olive Oyl. Dad's cousin Lyle walks in and says mom wants to see me next door in the Huska family's apartment—dad's distant relatives. I walk across the porch to their door and hear unsettling sounds coming from inside. Shaky nerves unsettle me.

I enter the apartment to a room full of crying, moaning adults speaking tongue gibberish. They wring their hands—peeking through their fingers at me—awaiting the moment when mom's shaky voice tells me dad's in heaven with Jesus.

My young brain tries to process the day's events. It's only been a couple hours since dad was taken to the hospital: How could he get to Heaven so fast? Did he fly?

The room falls silent except for weeping Aunt Evelyn, the mighty Prayer Warrior who'd failed to cast the devil out of dad. Eunice Lenning, dad's cousin by marriage, sees my distress and rushes over to put hands on my head. She hums—the buildup to tongue talking—but it only makes me feel worse and I want her to stop. What she's doing is stupid and won't change anything. My dad is dead.

I look over at mom and see Mark sitting with her. I can tell he's confused, hungry, and sleepy. Mark was at the hospital with mom and knew dad was sick, but at four years old, he doesn't understand dead.

Gilbert arrives for similar treatment: Prayers, hands, and staring. Our older sister Lana was fortunate to be among cousins when news was delivered to her at Bethany Chapel—the church where dad was first brought for healing.

Dad's death that night came from a brain aneurysm. Police were called to the hospital—standard procedure when a 34-year-old man dies under strange circumstances. They spoke with mom and cleared her name. The church people were lucky I wasn't at the hospital: I would have told the police everything about these lunatics and their healing shenanigans. They all had blood on their hands.

Once things quiet down in the apartment, Albin speaks: Let's take an offering for Elsie and the family, he requests for the new widow, 34-year-old Elsie Rasmussen.

Albin grabs a pillow from the sofa to pass around. Adults in the room reach deep into empty pockets as the pillow circles toward them. Elsie—mom—stares vacantly from the sofa.

The Rasmussen clan consisted of two daughters and seven sons, of which dad was the baby. Dad was closest to his brother Albin; they were the only two Rasmussens lit with the furious fire of Pentecostalism. I despised Albin for many reasons, past, present, and future—to my disgust, he was now taking charge.

The sofa pillow arrives back to Albin. Gilbert—always untrusting of Uncle Albin—eyes the offering as Albin counts it out: twenty-four bucks and loose change. The gathered relatives are impressed by the sum. Big smiles paint their faces as they present the offering to my shell-shocked mom.

Our relatives surely loved my dad and meant well. Now that he's gone, non-church business needs attention. Telephone calls are placed to our fragmented roots in Minnesota and Michigan, and to South Dakota where the Rasmussen clan is notified. All their crying and yakking made me desperate to flee the room. To be away from them all. Anywhere but there.

I stayed that night with Albin & Evelyn, crawling into bed with my older cousin Joann. I lay awake the entire night—all thoughts on dad. Where was he sleeping? Was this real? Would it all go away in the morning?

an image

Pastor Roy Rasmussen

GOOD MEMORIES FADE AWAY

In Long Beach—when dad was alive—we were a happy family. Our previous life was constant turmoil: a pitiful collection of lived-in cars, freezing farmhouses, food handouts, and the ever-present Pentecostalism. I was always hungry and cold. In Long Beach, the sun rose for us every day—until it didn't.

Long Beach life felt good and I was happy to see dad at home for once. Even though he never paid much attention to me, I began to feel like he cared. Before Long Beach, he was always running out the door somewhere; Now he only ran down the street to pastor his ad-hoc church—the rented dance hall on Redondo Avenue. Maybe dad felt age creeping in and slowed down to get out of the unproductive race to save sinners' souls. I like to imagine he was planning to settle down and take care of his family, to give all of us more love while continuing to love Jesus—a fair pursuit.

an image

Hopeful in Long Beach before dad died

Our initial arrival to Long Beach on October 18, 1956, was still dicey given our itinerant lifestyle. We had no furniture, and most of our possessions existed in paper bags packed in the trunk of dad's car. Bibles, Fuller Brush leftovers, and cleaning supplies. Bedding, sacks of clothes, and ragged pajamas. Mom still had her accordion but dad's guitar was gone—accidentally run over as we left Wichita.

Thankfully, dad's double-cousin Fred Lenning directed us to the fourplex apartment building where his sisters lived. With John Huska's family across from us and Helmer Gunderson's family next door, we now had cousins to replace the cold isolation of our previous life. The apartment was even furnished—we'd live large.

Our apartment had a pull-down bed in the living room where dad and mom slept. Down a little hallway was a bedroom where the four of us slept on twin beds: Mark and Gilbert in one, me and Lana in the other. This may seem cramped to outsiders but we were used to it after coming from a 27-foot trailer in Wichita, and that didn't even have a toilet. We lived better than ever and were happy to finally be somewhere good.

Dad wanted to hold church services immediately and found a dance hall at the corner of Redondo & Anaheim offering cheap Sunday rent. He'd rise early on Sunday to sweep away the filth left by Saturday night's rowdy crowd of drinkers & smokers, transforming the hall into a makeshift church.

Since Sunday was basically charity work, dad still needed to earn money. His brother Albin—the uncle we knew all too well from Wichita—had connections to a waterless cookware company and got dad onboard. This was a big deal for us: Dad finally had a real job and regular paycheck. We started living like normal people, and we loved our parents even if they remained distant to us.

I fondly remember sitting at the table in our apartment's tiny kitchenette, watching dad cook me breakfast: Cream of Wheat with buttered toast. That was my earliest memory of love for him, and the feeling that he might even love me back. Seeing him peaceful—not running out the door to some tent meeting or screaming about Jesus in a rural church—was wonderful. A weary thought crossed my mind: Why wasn't it always like this? Why did dad have to put us through so much pain?

We were the new kids in school for the umpteenth time. Gilbert entered 5th grade, I entered 6th, and Lana started Junior High. Mark was still too young for school so he stayed home with mom.

Gilbert and I went to Burbank Elementary, eight blocks from our apartment. We walked to school together every day, peeking in shop windows along Fourth Street. Many times we'd see dad and mom drive by on their way for morning coffee at the Park Pantry, their favorite restaurant. They never waved—I guess they didn’t see us.

I was so shy at school that during lunch hour I'd hide behind a door and talk to my imaginary friend. Lunch was a fried egg sandwich or thermos of cream corn—meals I'd long since grown accustomed to. I soon opened up to my classmates, learning baton twirling, doing back bends, and pretending to be in a marching band. I even played hop scotch with other kids.

During these happy times, Gilbert and I had a Shopping News paper route and felt pretty important earning our little paycheck. We rolled up our papers and walked our routes, sticking them in door handles and mail slots. We were pretty jazzed at our earnings: $5 total, split evenly down the middle. I could hardly wait to spend my half, heading down to the corner store to splurge on candy. I was smart to spend mine quick: Gilbert saved his, only to have dad borrow it and never pay him back.

Long Beach life still had its low points. Since dancing was strictly forbidden by Pentecostals, dad and mom kept me out of the school's square dance. While other kids joined arms and innocently skipped around, I was forced to watch from the sidelines. For Jesus.

Another low point was when dad's mom—our beloved Grandma Matilda—died in January 1957. Dad and Albin wanted to take their wives on a car run out to South Dakota for the funeral, leaving the kids behind under the care of seventh-grader Lana and older cousin Joann. Mom and Evelyn were furious with the plan and refused to go. The men drove alone to Bruce, South Dakota, in the middle of blizzard season, where on arrival they learned the ground was too frozen for burial. Grandma's body had to be stored until warm weather arrived to thaw the ground.

A couple months before his death, dad flew to Denver, Colorado, for a cookware company meeting. Our future looked good now, and I loved him for it. We headed to LAX to pick him up after the meeting and I was excited