Fannie Flagg - Standing in the Rainbow

For the Oatman family the summer had been extremely busy. Since May they had been from Nebraska to Arkansas, Oklahoma, Michigan, Louisiana, West Virginia, Kansas, and back again. After an all-night sing in Spartanburg, South Carolina, they finally had a day off from traveling.

Ferris was staying at a farmhouse with Bervin and Vernon and Betty Raye was at another house staying with a family of seven. Minnie had spent the night with the Pike family, who were local gospel singers of some note. The next morning she was sitting outside in the backyard, visiting with Mrs. Opal Pike, whose husband was already at work.

Besides being a gospel singer he was also a distant relative of the Pike's Mentholated Salve family and handled all sales in the Carolinas. The two women were drinking iced tea and discussing the problems and pitfalls of being gospel wives. Minnie said, "It's not always easy having everyone looking up to you."

"No," agreed Mrs. Pike.

"You know, Ferris has not always been the good strict Christian he is today. Most people don't know but he's had years of on-and-off bouts of drinking and running around, getting saved and then slipping back."

"You don't mean it?" said Mrs. Pike.

"Yes. But praise be to God, as of six weeks ago this Tuesday, he's permanently saved and a new man, and what a blessing. A redheaded faith healer from Mississippi cured him of the arthritis and saved his soul at the same meeting."

"You don't mean it," Mrs. Pike said again as she slapped a mosquito on her arm into oblivion.

Minnie nodded. "Up until that time he had been struggling with a serious crisis of faith. He'd been studying for his Church of Christ minister ship certificate through the mail for about three months when he came in one morning after sitting up all night out in the car with his Bible and he just looked terrible. I said, "Ferris, what's the matter?" And he looked at me and said, "Sit down, Minnie, I have something to tell you." He said, "Honey, I want you to know I have struggled and prayed a thousand hours over this thing but no help has come." Then he took my hand and held it and said, "We've got a serious problem. I might have to give up the ministry." Well, I got all shaken up inside when I heard that because up to this point it had been his whole life. And I said, "Ferris, what is it, is it another woman?"

And he said, "No, honey, it's the prodigal son." He said, "As hard as I've tried to come to terms with it and be in agreement with the Word, I can't." He'd lost his faith over a parable. He said, "If a man can go out and raise hell and spend all his money and live in sin and then comes back home and his father throws his arms around him and says welcome home, come on in, and acts like nothing happened, how does that make his other sons feel, the ones that stayed home and worked the farm, saved their money, and lived a Christian life? Why, it would make them feel like all those years of trying to be good didn't mean a thing to their daddy. They might as well have gone out and had a good time themselves." He said, "Don't you see, Minnie? Why should a man try and be good if in the end it don't matter one way or the other to your daddy? Why be good if, like the prodigal son, you can do anything you want and get away with it?"

"Well, what could I say? I said, "Ferris, I see your point. You can't very well sing and preach something you don't see the point of yourself, it wouldn't be right." But we had to go on because we was booked and I just kept praying the whole time. Then a few months later we was singing out at a big tent revival and camp meeting in Pelham, Alabama, and I'll never forget that night. There wasn't a star in the sky and it was as black as Egypt outside and Ferris is out wandering around and pretty soon he drifts over to this Harper woman's tent. Now, mind you, he's seen some of the best preachers and evangelists there is and was pretty much immune to any of them but he wasn't in there no more than twenty minutes till she came off that stage and grabbed ahold of him and said something to him and he's been saved ever since."

"Thank the Lord," said Mrs. Pike.

"The Lord and the Harper woman. Now, I don't know what it was she said but it must have been good because he hadn't had a pain in his knee since. No wonder she's got a big following. They say up in Atlanta people come to see her in ambulances and go home on the streetcar. You go to one of those healing meetings and you're gonna be cured of what ails you. We went one night up in Detroit and people was being healed left and right of back trouble, blindness, bunions, goiters, liver problems, ringworm, you name it. One woman came in with a crooked index finger and by the time the service was over it was as straight as a stick."

"You don't mean it!"

"I do. Honey, she turned around and pointed it right at me!"

Minnie stared off in the backyard. "I just hope Ferris will stay saved for a while, least ways till I get the boys raised. Both is at that age where they's starting to act up, and between them and having to watch Uncle Floyd like a hawk night and day I'm wore out."

Not only did Dorothy care about people she thought needed help but she also had a soft spot for animals and everybody for miles around knew it. On July first she started her broadcast with yet another abandoned kitten in her lap that had been left at her back door the night before.

After she opened the show and had done her first commercial she announced, "By the way, the noise you are hearing is not a motorboat.

It is the sweetest little cat I have here, just purring away, and he is in need of a home. He is just a little orange angel and would make a wonderful companion for somebody out there, I just know it, so if anybody can take him, please give us a call."

Norma's Aunt Elner, a regular listener who almost never missed Dorothy's show, had a soft spot as well. The following morning Mother Smith started off the show with a rousing rendition of "Happy Days Are Here Again." "That's right, Mother, it is a happy day over here and I can start the show with good news. I have gone into my own personal voting booth and voted Elner Shimfissle for the Good Neighbor of the Year Award. After the show yesterday she called us and said that she would take the little cat and yesterday afternoon she and her husband, Will, came to pick him up. So our little orange orphan has a nice home on a farm. This is the fifth cat she has taken this year, so thank you, Elner. She said she didn't have an orange one and has always wanted one. So it's turned out fine for every body… and she has named the cat Sonny… So good luck to Sonny in his new home.

"People are just wonderful, aren't they? And now, to celebrate our big day…" Mother Smith played a touch of "Happy Birthday" on the organ.

""Yes… it's our precious Princess Mary Margaret's birthday… and she thanks all of you out there in her fan club for her birthday cards… and we'll tell you more about that later. But first, I just want to remind you that each and every donation you are so kind to send in to the Princess Mary Margaret Fund goes to help pay for the care of our little animals that need our help. I am happy to report that last year we found loving homes for over five hundred little dogs and cats, plus a box of painted turtles that had been abandoned and three rabbits. Plus funding for a Seeing Eye dog for our own Beatrice Woods.

"The dog came last week and is a beautiful golden retriever named Honey, and if you could only see Beatrice and Honey walking up and down the streets, you would know what a wonderful cause your money went to. How can we ever thank you enough?

"I also wish you all could see Princess Mary Margaret in her basket with all of her new birthday toys. Our girl is twelve years old today. It's so hard to believe that when Doc brought her to me she was no bigger than my hand… wasn't she, Mother Smith? And now she's as big and fat as I am. I guess that comes from both of us eating too much ice cream. Here's a card I want to share with you… it says, "Happy Birthday to Princess Mary Margaret. I hope you have a happy day. Keep up the good work. Mother, Bess, and Margaret send their best wishes. President Harry S. Truman"