Guest blog by Melissa Baxter
Born
in 1926, Edwin Dyer has been a member of Baptist Temple almost 70
years. Nearly every Sunday he is found sitting in the second to the
back row on the right side with a bright smile and kind word.
During
WWII, Edwin’s family had a café that was required by the
government to stay open every day to feed the Kelly Field workers.
Although this wasn’t ideal, his family did get extra rations to
make up for the inconvenience.
A
hard worker, Edwin’s first job was running a projector at the movie
theater making about $200/month (a lot of money back then!) As a high
school senior, he was named the best paper boy in San Antonio for
delivering the most Express-News papers and was awarded a $25 war
bond.
He
graduated from Hot Wells High School at 16 and was drafted into the
Army at 18 as an infantry man, training at Ft. Hood. He served in
the Philippines with the 32nd infantry on a crew that
cleaned up after the major battles during the liberation of the
islands from the Japanese. He said “It wasn’t easy.”
Finding
a job was difficult after leaving the Army but Edwin was in the 52/20
club. The US government paid $20/month for a year while veterans
looked for work. He finally went to school to be a
lithographer/typesetter, a job he enjoyed for 41 years.
Baptist
Temple's pastor at the time, Vernon Elmore, had lunch at Edwin's
parents café with Sam Prestige, Minister of Music, and church
member, Walter Lynn. This led to an invitation for the Dyer family
to visit Baptist Temple. The family joined Baptist Temple together
when Edwin was about 24 years old.
Edwin
is a Shriner and his proudest moment came when he was able to
facilitate the treatment of a young boy with club foot. He feels that
he was a vessel for the good work that was done for that boy and his
family.
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