A Son's Tribute to His Father
Paul Burleson died May 5, 2024, and entered the Land of the Living.
I married Rachelle on August 6, 1983; my father didn’t officiate the service.
He was my best man.
But that’s not unusual. William Paul Burleson (b. July 19, 1940 - d. May 5, 2024) was everybody’s best man.
William Paul Young, author of The Shack, sent me this text earlier today:
The first time I met William Paul Burleson, I knew I was safe with this man. Not only because we share the same first and middle names but because of the warmth of his smile, the genuine, loving arm he put around my shoulder, and a presence that whispered, “I’ve got you!”
He made me feel that in his world, I was the only one who mattered.
Good night, brother; I will see you in the morning.
Paul Young feels the way everybody who knew Paul Burleson feels today.
My dad had a magnetism that drew people to him. He was approachable by all but had a particular affinity for the down-and-out, the wounded and broken, those that the world of riches, class, and power often rejects.
The Overcomer
My dad grew up just south of the North Canadian River (now called the Oklahoma River in OKC), near May Avenue.
The United States still felt the pangs of the Great Depression and had not yet entered World War II when my dad was born.
The Burleson family lived near the infamous Hooverville Great Depression camp on May Avenue.
Russell Lee, a photographer with the U.S. Farm Security Administration, made the May Avenue Hooverville Camp, located just south of the North Canadian River and west of the meatpacking district, famous in 1939 with his images of tar-paper shacks, destitute children, and mothers struggling to care for families.
One of my dad’s earliest memories is going to the May Avenue camp with his brother to get their mother’s “birthday gift.” All they could find in the trash the homeless threw away were a couple of broken and chipped china cups and saucers.
The barefoot Burleson boys brought the dishes to their mom and, with boyish smiles, wished her "Happy Birthday!”
School Years
The Burleson home was on the “other side of the tracks” in OKC.
Dad’s father, William Reed Burleson (1915-1971), served in World War II, including the brutal Battle of the Bulge, and was not around my dad until after the war.
Today, medical practice understands post-traumatic syndrome (PTSD), but when my grandfather returned home after the war, there was no diagnosis for the trauma of what happened to him during WWII.
Reed Burleson became an alcoholic.
My grandfather, immediately after returning from WWII in December 1945, participated in a “craps game” at the old Biltmore Hotel when the owner of Cattleman’s Restaurant ran out of money and laid the “deed” to the restaurant down as payment.
In the infamous story, OKC’s best steak restaurant was lost in a craps hand in which my dad’s father participated.
That’s the way my grandfather rolled.
Alcoholism caused my grandfather to take several odd jobs cleaning bars after midnight in south OKC.
My father has memories of pulling his father out of bars late at night, passed out from alcohol. He would walk to the local bars near their house and carry his father home.
Until he died, Paul Burleson could not stand the smell of hay because the old bars used to spread hay on the wood or concrete floors to make it easy to clean up the vomit of alcoholics.
With no Christian example from his father, Paul Burleson became involved in things he found difficult to discuss, even at an older age. It took a brother-in-law, Frank Coy (husband of Dad’s older sister), to lead my father to Christ.
My dad’s conversion as a teenager was dramatic.
“I remember stealing when I was a kid because I had the mentality that to steal for necessities was just,” he told me. “But when Christ saved me, He transformed my life.”
My dad eventually became the president of Capitol Hill High School and was elected president of the student council for all of OKC high schools.
The story of how this poverty-stricken son of an alcoholic became a leader at his high school, dating Miss Edmond (Mary Cherry), his future wife, became an evangelist with Richard “Butch” Hogue while attending Oklahoma Baptist University, turned into the pastor of one of the fastest growing churches in the nation, and then “a pastor to pastors” as he and my mother led Pastor/Wives retreats across the nation, is a story you’ll learn about at my father’s memorial service.
Crossings Community Church
14600 Portland Avenue, OKC
Friday, May 10, 2024, at 2:00 P.M
By God’s grace, my father became an overcomer in life.
He is everyman’s best man. I’ll tell you more on Friday.
I asked your father why Peter said you had to be baptized to be saved in part of the bible, but when he first preached to the Gentiles they received the Holy Spirit while he was still preaching. Your father said Peter was on a 'learning curve'.
Oh, Wade, Rose Mary and I have been praying for you and your family. This is a wonderful story. Want to hear the rest. But I will give one story from my experiences with your father. Having met him and been inspired by him when I was a new Christian in college, one thing was true about him that I have not seen in very many others. Every time I would see him over the many years, he was more Christlike than the last time. His growth in the Lord and HIS impact on him was always evident! So very grateful to have known him! Tell your mom that she has our condolences and prayers.