Russell N. Gallimore
Paul and Bill: Carroll and I are grieved to lose a longtime friend and colleague in ministry. It was Jim who cut-out Carroll's photo from a Conference Journal and had her put it in her billfold when she was secretary to Jim, John Hartman and Carl Robbins in the Conference Program Office in 1963. You can imagine my surprise when she revealed that photo on our first date. When we were married in 1964, Ruth sang at our wedding. When our three sons came along, Jim baptized each one. You two young lads ate at our table and played with our sons when we were serving Adamsville First. It was District Superintendent Jim who requested that I be appointed to Adamsville First so I could organize a Larger Parish for which I had been trained. It was Superintendent Jim who invited me to ride with him to St. Louis for a special called session of General Conference in 1970. It was an unforgettable Jim who jumped up and down, speaking in unknown tongues, when he slammed the trunk shut on his Ford Pinto after we arrived in St. Louis...after he had just put his coat in the trunk with the car keys in a coat pocket! Jim had to be the luckiest man in the world that day because when we went in to register, the registrar turned-out to be an old friend he had known when he was stationed at the Millington Naval Base years before. After telling her the story of his car trunk episode, she said to not worry because her husband was the Ford dealer in St. Louis. So while we attended the sessions, she called hubby to send a tow truck for his Pinto, hauled it to his shop where his experts managed to go through the back seat to retrieve his keys. To top it all off, the lady and her dealer husband took us to a plush place to eat and picked-up the tab! When the day's session was over, Jim's car was back on the parking locked and he had the keys in his pocket. Unbelievably, the dealer refused to accept one penny for the work. Everyone should be so lucky as to have a friend like Jim. Carroll and I love you guys. Peace in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Rev. Russell N. Gallimore, Jackson, TN