Modern Hill Woman

Summertime in the Bible Belt of the 1960s was revival season. We five youngest Huddleston sisters sang throughout Southeast Missouri, especially when it was revival time.

We were excited about reconnecting with friends we hadn’t seen in a year, fried chicken dinners shared with preacher’s families, and good music.

Preacher Gene Sells would travel our way every summer, driving up and down 21 Highway with a big PA system heard for miles announcing “Revival!” and when and where. His meetings were held in a huge tent or under a brush arbor made from cut trees and brush laid on top for the roof. One gathering was a brush arbor/coon dog association meeting and after church the men let their coon dogs run.

The hellfire and brimstone preachers of Carter County; Brother Condray, Coleman, and Middleton were working men, preaching on the weekends and during revivals. When they came to our house for dinner, they weren’t scary at all. When they got behind the pulpit and the spirit moved them, they were terrifying. I’d hide my head in my mom’s lap or behind her arm as they pointed their fingers at us sinners and yelled about burning in hell.

Our favorite yearly revival was held by Glenn Murray at Oak Grove. He was a tall, handsome man with piercing blue eyes and white hair. He was a good preacher and drew large crowds with his sermons. He preached over 700 revivals in his lifetime.

We sang and so did others. The Allen Family rivaled ours in size and had the special harmony of sibling voices. The Boyles would always sing “Too Late to Enter Heaven” in a tone of doom. Clarence and Alice Crook and Mrs. Wright sang “If You Believe“, a toe tapper about Daniel, Paul and Silas, and David and Goliath. We hoped for a solo from Mrs. Wright, usually “Old Time Preacher Man”. Her rich, loud voice and her all-over-the-piano honkytonk style of playing shook the walls of the church. The faster the song, the more she bounced up and down on the piano bench. She was a large woman, but the bench never broke. Praise the Lord and pass the fried chicken.