DUANE SHERRILLEditor

At the young age of 92, Byron Lawrence delivered his last sermon as pulpit minister at New Center Grove Church of Christ recently, culminating 42 years at the house of worship where he had first thought he would stay six months.

“The church out of New Center Grove was needing someone to help stabilize them there, so they said ‘Byron, you’re the one for that,’ so I went there in the summer of 1982,” Lawrence recalled. “I went for six months to stabilize it there and stayed 42 years and retired June 30.”

Prior to taking the pulpit at Center Grove, he was instrumental in the establishing of Bel-Aire Church of Christ in 1962. He was a deacon there for seven years and an elder for 14 years.

Lawrence actually came to Tullahoma by way of the baseball diamond as he played professional baseball for five years.

 “Baseball got me into aerospace,” Lawrence revealed, adding he went from school and into the Texas League where he played catcher. “I played five years of organized ball but that got me into aerospace,” he said. “About 50 families moved to Tullahoma in 1957 when they closed down the wind tunnels in Dangerfield, Texas. I was in college and married and couldn’t come at that time but I came in 1959.”

He met the love of his life, Idelia, (who passed away in recent years) while playing baseball in Texas, wiping away a tear as he recalled how they first met.

“Family life has been great,” the 92-year-old retired minister said, noting it must have been divine providence that he met his wife. “While playing ball, I never went to the cafeteria but one day they talked me into it. Well, this auburn-haired girl walked across there and I said I need to know here. I ended up marrying her. Life was grand. I miss her like crazy.”

Lawrence said he got into aerospace during his time playing ball in Texas and worked for Convair Aircraft in the wind tunnel section. Like friends who preceded him to Tullahoma, he made his move here and went to work for AEDC.

While aerospace was his livelihood, his passion was preaching and teaching.

“I always found time to preach and teach wherever I was,” he recalled, pointing to his transition from aerospace to the ministry.

“It was great,” he said of his time as minister, noting he will still preach and teach as needed, just not on a full-time basis. “I am retiring from regular pulpit preaching but I will fill in here and there. It is more relaxed now. I might be in a seminar once in a while.”

He pointed to Psalms 92 as giving direction to those who are older. “You need to be bearing fruit, even in old age,” he noted. “That’s going to be me.”