Biography of Leroy Dedmon

The Saga of Leroy Dedmon

Leroy Dedmon - 1939	*In the beginning..* Leroy Dedmon was born in Ringgold, GA on June 27, 1939 to his parents, Gordon Lee and Ruby (Dickson) Dedmon. Gordon was born on May 2, 1918 and passed away on September 16, 2002. He was the son of Thomas Judson and Alice Walker Dedmon and grandson of William D. and Mary Wells Dedmon Ruby was born on January 8, 1912 and passed away on July 14, 2008. She was the daughter of George and Pearl Templeton Dickson and the great granddaughter of David McCarter Dickson and Hannah Dedmon. The story is told that Doctor Stevenson of Ringgold came to the house and slept in his car all night awaiting Leroy's arrival into this world. He charged his parents 25.00. To this day, no one really knows for sure if his parents ever asked for a refund. *...then there was five*	G.L. and Ruby Dickson Dedmon
Bill, Carolyn, Leroy, Ruth, Tommy	Leroy is the oldest of five children (Carolyn, Ruth, Tom and Bill). Eight years separates him and Bill, who is the youngest. Leroy married Jane Glasscock in 1957. Carolyn married Claude Price in 1960. Ruth married Carl Hamby soon after graduation from High School in 1960. Carl was killed in an automobile accident on December 31, 1961. While visiting with Leroy and Jane, she met and married Don Smith of Gurley, AL. They married in 1963 and resided in Gurley, AL. Don passed away in July of 2005 following a brief bout with the illness that took his life. Ruth still lives in Gurley. Tommy married Diane Sparkman in 1965 and Bill married Connie Buff in 1971. Connie was the flower girl in Leroy and Jane's wedding. Leroy, Carolyn, and Tommy live in Houston Valley on the "homeplace" in Catoosa, County, GA. Bill and Connie live in Bowdon, GA. Jane, Diane and Connie all grew up on Mission Ridge Road near Wallaceville, GA about a mile from each other.

*Off to school......* Leroy began his education at Graysville, GA in 1946 in a three room and three grades per room school house. His dad was away in the Army and there were three other children at home (Bill was yet unborn), so his mother pinned his name on his shirt and sent him off to school about a mile away. Leroy stood outside the school crying and afraid to go in. The school principal came out and took him inside and introduced him to the teacher. Since he could read when he started to school, he was placed in the second grade. Later that year when his family moved near Rossville, GA he entered Osburn Elementary (between Rossville and Chickamauga, GA), his teachers and parents thought it best that he finish that year in the first grade. He attended Osburn through the eighth grade. In 1954 he began attending Rossville High School. While in High School he was active in the Bible Club, Science Club, Key Club (a project of Kiwanis International) and the Beta Club. He also participated in the Baseball and Football programs. He graduated from Rossville High School in 1957 in the top 25% of his class. In the fall of 1957 he entered the Drafting Training Program at Combustion Engineering at Chattanooga, TN. After receiving his certificate of completion he moved to Huntsville, AL in 1959 to work at the Redstone Arsenal as a design draftsman on the Saturn IV project for NASA (Marshall Space Flight Center). He presently holds a BA from National Christian University and an MA from Southern Christian University (formerly Alabama Christian School of Religion) in Montgomery, AL. Southern Christian recently was renamed Amridge University. He is qualified to administer the Taylor-Johnson Temperament Analysis Profile and an instructor for the Ron Willingham Men's Leadership Course.		Saturn Missile
*Born again......* Leroy "grew up" in the Baptist church, where as a teenager he was active in the BYPU. He began attending the Chattanooga Valley Church of Christ at Flintstone, GA., while dating Jane Glasscock (his future wife). He was baptized by James Watkins in 1957, during his senior year of high school. His brother, Bill, preached for the Chattanooga Valley church for about eight years. Leroy baptized Bill and his sister Ruth while he was preaching at Gurley AL in the early '60s.
Jane and Leroy - 1959	*For better or for worse......* In 1959 Leroy married Jane Glasscock, the daughter of Berlin and Cynthia Glasscock. Brother Glasscock was one of the elders at the Chattanooga Valley Church of Christ . Following his death in 1961 Sister Glasscock served as a Dormitory Supervisor for Freed-Hardeman University at Henderson, TN, until her death in 1972. Jane is a teacher for Women's Bible Classes and Workshops. She has developed her material, "Life Looks Better When You Do". They have two children, Gary of Springfield, TN and Gwen Kiley of Buchanan, GA. They are blessed with three grandchildren: Carrie Rawls Webb, Greg and Jonathan Dedmon. They have three great grandchildren: Masie Jane Webb, Curt Douglas Webb and Cassidy Webb. Gary is a 1982 graduate of David Lipscomb College . He was diagnosed with MS about 1993 and has been on permanent disability for several years. He is an avid sports fan and is involved in youth sports programs. Gwen manages and operates Gwen's Family Restaurant (click for more information)in Buchanan, GA., a joint venture with Jane and Leroy.

Getting the "call"......

Leroy has been preaching for about 50 years. His first sermon was in a men's leadership class at Chattanooga Valley in 1958. After moving to Huntsville, AL. in 1959 he filled appointments for congregations in Northern Alabama and preached on Sunday evenings for the church in Paint Rock, AL.

Gurley, Alabama

In February of 1960 Leroy agreed to preach for the church at Gurley, AL, serving as "part-time" minister until June 1963. In 1963 he preached a "tent meeting" on Keel Mt., near Gurley and assisted in establishing a congregation. After resigning his position at Redstone Arsenal he preached "full-time" for both congregations (Keel Mt. and Gurley) from June 1963 till January 1964. Preaching four times each Sunday and conducting Bible Study at Gurley on Wednesday night and Keel Mt. on Thursday night proved to be quite a chore.

Houseparents.....

In 1964 He and Jane moved to Cullman, AL to become houseparents at Childhaven Children's Home. While at Childhaven Leroy was responsible for "Public Relations" which consisted of traveling the State of Alabama speaking on behalf of the Children's home and overseeing the mailing of the monthly newsletter, "Childhaven News". This was his first introduction to the "Printing Industry" which later proved to be useful in his ministry.

Manchester, TN......

After nine months at Childhaven the Dedmons resigned from Childhaven and moved to Manchester, TN so Leroy could return to the pulpit on a "full-time" basis for the congregation located in the New Union community. While at New Union the church selected the first elders in the history of the congregation, which at that time was approximately fifty years old. The church also completely remodeled the meeting house by enlarging the auditorium, adding an office and ten classrooms, a foyer and restrooms and an annex that served as overflow seating and a large adult classroom.

Morrison, TN.....

In June 1968 he accepted the "work" at Morrison, TN, about 15 miles away. While serving his 90 day notice he preached for both congregations, preaching 4 times each Sunday. Since the church at Morrison was involved in their own Children's Home (Sunny Acres Home for Children), the Dedmons soon became involved and again served as Houseparents for two of the three and one-half years at Morrison. While at Morrison, Leroy preached in several "Mission Meetings" at Camilla, GA and during that time developed a strong desire to return to his "home state" to preach the Gospel. Since Morrison fully supported a missionary in Camilla, GA and China (Formosa) along with the Children's home, the church purchased offset printing equipment to publish promotional materials. Leroy organized and operated a very successful "Printing Ministry" that not only furnished financial support for the printing done by the Morrison congregation, but also enabled the congregations in the area to publish their bulletins and other printed materials at a fraction of the cost of commercial printing.

Springfield, TN.....
In January of 1972 Leroy became the minister of the Main Street congregation in Springfield, TN. where he served for more than thirteen years. The work at Springfield proved to be an excellent educational experience in the organizational procedures of a local congregation. Working under the direction of experienced and mature leadership Leroy gained some valuable experience that has been a great asset to his work in Georgia. In 1978 the Springfield congregation assumed the "full-time" support for the preacher at Dahlonega, GA and once again Leroy was able to participate in the evangelism of Georgia. An opportunity to move to Dalton, Georgia, was offered to him in the mid-seventies, but a commitment to let their children finish school at Springfield prevented it from happening. One of the highlights at Springfield was the installation of BIBLE CALL, electronic telephone equipment that allowed callers to request Bible lessons over the phone. This proved to be a very successful work for about three years.

Main Street Church of Christ
320 N. Main St.
Springfield, TN 37172

I wouldn't do that.....

In March of 1985 Leroy resigned the pulpit at Springfield in order to have the freedom to locate a new work. Being in his "mid-forties" Jane says to this day that this was his mid-life crisis. She says that instead of going out and buying a motorcycle or doing something foolish, he just quit his job. Looking back, Leroy admits it probably was not a very smart thing to do. Many members of the congregation had a difficult time accepting his resignation without a place to go, and some felt the elders were hiding something from them. It also was difficult explaining to prospective congregations, without them wondering if something was wrong. However, it was a lesson learned.

Bremen, GA...... In June of 1985 the church at Bremen, GA extended an invitation to Leroy to become their minister. He accepted and moved to Georgia, the state of his birth, in September, 1985. The Bremen congregation has always been one of the stronger congregations in Georgia. They have been responsible for the establishment of several congregations in the West Georgia area. In May of 1986 the Bremen congregation appointed six additional elders to serve with the existing two, bringing the total eldership to eight. With the completion of a new fellowship hall the congregation began having more fellowships and other activities which included a State-wide Youth Rally, which saw as many as 500 young people in attendance.

Woodstock, GA (not NY)......

In May of 1993 Leroy moved to Woodstock, GA to became the preacher for Woodstock church of Christ and in his own words, "this was one of the most productive works in his career of preaching the gospel." The Woodstock congregation had experienced a devastating split that left them in a very depressed condition. Within the first year the congregation began "bouncing back and was soon back to around 300 in attendance. Leroy attributed any success to the growth of the Woodstock congregation to the Lord, a caring eldership and a supportive "help-meet". He says, "without her help, I would have never been able to give myself to "the ministry of the Word". Although he often receives credit for organizing and planning, those closest to him know she is the key to Leroy's success.

Jane and Leroy - 1995

You are getting old.....

In the fall of 2004, Leroy says that he and the elders came to a mutual understanding. "They wanted a different preacher and he understood it". Since he was approaching his 65th birthday, the decision was made to "retire" and move in with his mother as her health was failing and she was living alone following the death of his father in 2002. During his ministry at Woodstock, the church began a remodeling program to give the church a "face lift" and add more class room and office space. The project was not completed until after his moving from Woodstock.
Woodstock church building (1977-2005)	Woodstock church building (present
*Gospel Meetings......* Leroy has conducted approximately 400 Gospel Meetings in Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Florida, Mississippi, Illinois and Indiana as well as being a regular speaker at the "Smoky Mountain Lectures" in Gatlinburg, TN and the Tennessee Bible College Lectures. Both programs are sponsored by the Tennessee Bible College in Cookeville, TN. Malcolm Hill, president of Tennessee Bible College, always introduced Leroy as a "church builder" and on a number of occasions invited him to join the staff at TBS to teach a course on "The Practical Aspects of the Preachers Work". At one time Leroy held 10 meetings per year in addition to his local work. After moving to Georgia he only scheduled four per year in order to devote more time to the work in Georgia. The Woodstock church supported Leroy in one "mission" meeting each year in Georgia if requested. One of those meetings was at Hull, GA where Tommy Broom was preaching. Tommy is a distant cousin to Leroy and also a convert from the Baptist church. After his retirement and moving home to help care for his mother, Leroy cut his meetings back to only one or two per year. Now that his mother has passed away, he is available to hold more meetings. He has developed several congregational development workshops that is designed for week-end meetings.

Community affairs.....
Having a keen interest in community activities, Leroy served as: P.T.A. President in Manchester and Springfield; Cub Scout and Boy Scout leader in Morrison; and Little League Baseball coach in Manchester and Morrison. He served on the board of directors of the Robertson County Job Opportunity Committee in Springfield, Springfield Emergency Food Bank, Robertson County Home Health Care and as volunteer Chaplain for the Robertson County Sheriff's Department and Jesse Holman Jones Hospital in Springfield. He held membership in the Morrison Ruritan Club, Springfield Kiwanis Club, Bremen Lions Club and served three terms as president of the Woodstock Kiwanis Club.

Give Leroy the Ball.....
Leroy's favorite sport in which he participated was softball. By the time he was ten years old he had visions of playing professional baseball. If he had not mad the Big Leagues he would have settled to play for the Chattanooga Lookouts, who at that time was the AA farm team of the Washington Senators. Later that Washington team became the Minnesota Twins. One of the players he remembers passing through Chattanooga was the famed Harmon Killebrew. Some of his favorite pitchers of that era was Al Sima and Sonny Dixon. His all time favorite was Bobo Newsome. Bobo knew nothing of the modern day quality start of six or seven innings. He once pitched both games of a double header. He was known for his “razzle-dazzle” style of pitching and his famous “blooper pitch”. Leroy says he patterned his pitching after Bobo. Before the days of the plastic “whiffle” ball, Leroy made the homemade sock ball. In fact he was pretty good at making all of the equipment his brothers and sisters played with, including bats and gloves. Leroy takes the credit of making a hitter out of Bill and a catcher out of Tommy. By the time he was two years old, Bill had learned to swing a bat. Leroy says his knuckle ball and “blooper” was too much for him until he reached about six or eight years old. By the time Leroy was eight, he was playing organized baseball on some of the local community and church teams. He says that he always knew that he would be in the starting lineup. Never mind the fact that his father was the coach. Leroy went on to play what is now equivalent to “Babe Ruth” League and eventually High School baseball. He never developed as the pitcher he envisioned. Graduating from sock balls and whiffle balls, the hard ball was not as kind to his knuckle and blooper pitches. Also, the hitters were much larger than his little brother Bill. As a result, he became an outfielder. In High School it was center field. He was not an Andruw Jones, but managed to keep his starting position, and a pretty good country slugger. Leroy says that somehow "the professional scouts never saw my potential nor was I granted a college scholarship to play baseball". So, after High School, he rejoined his dad’s team. By then it was fast pitch softball. He tried pitching, but never could learn the knack of swinging his arm around and throwing the ball underhanded. So it was back to the field. He did manage to play short stop and second base a few times, but generally it was the outfield. After he and Jane married in 1959 and moved to Huntsville, his days of organized ball ended. He did continue to play on Sunday afternoon in what was called “scrub” games with some of the neighborhood kids. Upon moving to Manchester, TN in 1964, he organized a fast pitch softball team in the New Union community and played other communities in and around Coffee County. Once the team traveled to Huntsville to play against a team his father had organized and was coaching.

By the time Gary was around seven years of age (1967), Leroy hung up his bat and glove and took on the coaches hat for a Little League Baseball team. That lasted for about five years, even after he moved from Manchester to Morrison, TN. Gary became the pitcher Leroy never was and had a nice little career that took him through High School. Although he did not play in college, his knowledge of sports paid his way through David Lipscomb College as a sports manager. When Leroy moved to Springfield, TN in 1972 at the age of 33, he came out of retirement and began his slow pitch softball career which lasted for more than 30 years. He did become the pitcher of his youthful dreams and enjoyed the challenge of once again trying his knuckle ball and an occasional blooper. By then the word blooper had taken on an entirely different meaning. While in Springfield, he once again was able to be teammates with his brother Bill and even with his son, Gary. He continued playing while living at Bremen and Woodstock. While at Woodstock he joined the Cherokee County Senior Softball Association and served on the board of directors as well as the commissioner of what was called the "American League". He began playing at the age of 57 and one year played on three teams in three different leagues. His last year of play was in 2004 and guess who the catcher was for the final season. You guessed it, .... it was his brother Tommy....

Leroy at the age 60 tossing the "ole pumpkin" while playing in the Senior League at Woodstock

"Preecher Hayseed" entertains at the Dedmon Reunion

etc..., etc... etc...
In addition to serving as Houseparents at Childhaven and Sunny Acres, Leroy and Jane have worked with several Youth Camps as Counselors, Directors and members of the Board. Among the camps served are: Camp CHILD (Cumberland Heights), Altamont, TN; Fall Creek Falls, Pikeville, TN; Camp Lylewood, Clarksville, TN; Short Mountain, Woodbury, TN and Camp Inagehi, Douglasville, GA. For more than 25 years Leroy has preached on daily radio programs including: Manchester, TN; McMinnville, TN; Springfield, TN and Bremen, GA. He has also served on the Television Panel, "Search the Scriptures" from Bowling Green, KY and participated in "Video Pulpit", a service of Jesse Holman Jones in Springfield, TN. He is a regular member of "Know Your Bible", a weekly television program that airs in Ft. Oglethorpe, GA and Chattanooga, TN. He is also an entertainer with "After Dinner Speeches" as his creation of "Preacher Alfaha Hayseed" is very popular for such occasions.

This is a painting by Leroy's sister, Alma Ruth, of the original house built by Leroy's great grandfather, John Marion Dickson. The house is thought to be around 150 years old. Leroy's mother was born in this house in 1912 and was living here when she died in 2008.		*Life after Social Security...* Upon retirement Leroy moved back to the "old homeplace" to care for his mother, Ruby Dickson Dedmon. His father passed away in 2002. Thirty years prior, in 1972, Leroy was preaching in a Gospel Meeting at Chickamauga, GA when Jane called to tell that she had taken her mother to the hospital, she died a few days later. He was in a meeting at Chickamauga when his brother, Bill called to tell that they had taken his father to the hospital and he died the next day. In 2004, Barry Gilreath asked Leroy to join the staff of Preaching The Gospel Television with James Watkins. Leroy had been involved with the program as a volunteer from its beginning around 1997, as the coordinator for the Atlanta area. His duties after becoming a member of the paid staff included publishing the newsletter and maintaining the web page. He was listed as a coordinator for the program which was being televised over thirty commercial stations. Leroy feels as if an honor was bestowed upon him to be involved with the program that features James Watkins. He often referred to him as "his father in the gospel".

On the night of July 13th, 2008, Leroy's mother, Ruby Dickson Dedmon, was reading a book as she normally did. At some point she closed the book and turned out the light and went to sleep. From that sleep she never awakened.

Leroy's sister, Ruth had arrived on Sunday afternoon and had a good visit with her mom. She ate pretty good that evening and joked a bit with Leroy and Ruth, before Leroy left for evening worship at the Highland congregation in Dalton. That was the last time Leroy saw her alive.

This was classical "textbook" as you could not have written the script any better. Since we all must pass this way, one could only hope to be as fortunate. Her mind was good to the very end and her suffering during her last few years on earth was minimal.

This is how the house looks today. Leroy's father added rooms to all sides of the house after he retired in the mid '60s. You can still see the log cabin, which is now used as a den.

In 2005 the Gospel Broadcasting Network (GBN) was launched. GBN is a satellite television station that airs gospel programing twenty four hour/seven day a week. The GBN office was located in Chattanooga, TN. With Barry spending most of his time with GBN, Leroy was given more responsibility overseeing the Preaching The Gospel office in Dalton, GA. Since both works were under the oversight of the elders of the Highland church of Christ in Dalton, the two offices were merged in January of 2008. A 30,000 sq. ft. facility was obtained in the Gateway Mall off I-75 near Ringgold and Ft. Oglethorpe, GA. Leroy now serves as the Operations Manager of GBN as well as retaining responsibility with coordinating Preaching The Gospel operation. Since the merger, Leroy no longer publishes the newsletter or maintains the web page as that was merged with the GBN publication.

The Highland church building, Dalton, GA

30,000 sq. ft. World Communications Center on Cloud Springs Road, just off I-75 at exit 353, near Ringgold and Ft. Oglethope, GA. The facility houses both GBN and Preaching The Gospel Television program.

Please contact me by
email
or
Phone 770-605-1920
or write me at,
497 Dickson Rd.
Ringgold, GA 30736
U.S.A.

Return to Leroy's Home Page

Revised August 12, 2008