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December 15, 1948 - November 16, 2007
A short Tribute to our Dear Sister (in Law) Betty Irene (Rhoad) Hersman
who graduated to Glory on November 16, 2007:
When I arrived at God's Bible School in late summer 1967, there were a couple
other new arrivals from Tennessee, who soon became my very good friends –
sisters in Christ. They were Betty Rhoad and Brenda Johnson. They were
roommates. My roommate was Dale Birdsall, the brother of my new girlfriend.
Within a few months, with a little encouragement from me, Dale was dating
Brenda. My brother, Jim, came to visit me, and I persuaded Betty to go on a
church date with him. She was really reluctant, and often told the story later
of how she came down from the dorm with her mind made up to say “No.” She said
she didn't know Jim, but I said, “You know me! You know you can trust me.”
Finally she agreed to go, and it was the beginning of one of the “greatest
romances of all time!”
Once thereafter when walking to the mission where we worked in Cincinnati, I
said to Betty and Brenda. “I will marry Crystal. Betty will marry Jim. Brenda
will marry Dale, and you girls will be my sisters-in-law!” Of course they
laughed and giggled like teenage girls do about such things, but the prediction
did come true, and as sisters-in-law, they were just like sisters to Crystal and
me.
Jim and Betty Hersman were married on August 30, 1969, at Jamestown, Tennessee.
In October the same year Crystal and I were married. Dale and Brenda were
married the next summer. Dale died in 1976, and Brenda later married Tim
Britton.
Jim and Betty lived in Cincinnati until after their first child was born on
Easter Sunday, 1971. For a while they lived near Livingston, Tennessee, until a
tornado destroyed their church in 1974. The went to help Betty's parents at
their Jamestown church. In 1976, the church started Cumberland Christian
Academy, and Betty was one of the relentless workers of that institution for the
next 31 years!
This year, on their 38^th Anniversary, Betty was not feeling well, and the day
was spent with doctors, trying to diagnose what her physical problem was. As the
diagnosis continued several weeks, she was told that she has two incurable
conditions. Hopefully the medication could prolong her life. She was on oxygen
the last time we saw her.
Our dear sister, Betty Hersman, graduated to the presence of the Lord on Friday,
November 16, 2007. “To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.”
She had given the strength of her youth to the Lord Jesus Christ, and her adult
life to the cause of Christian education. Like Abraham Lincoln choosing words
for his Gettysburg Address, I can not say anything that can do justice to the
life she lived for others, in the Name of Jesus Christ. The world will little
note what I say, but it will never be the same because of the influence she had
on so many lives. From these honored dead we take increased devotion for the
cause for which she gave her last full measure of devotion....education rooted
in the truth of God's Word.
Please keep my Brother, Jim, in your prayers, along with their daughter,
Melinda, (Mrs. Donald Shirk) and their four children. Also pray for Betty's dad
and two brothers. Her Mother and her only son preceded her in death.
Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in
me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: John 11:25
Goodbye dear Sister. We'll see you soon.
David and Crystal
    
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