"Dana Andrews' childhood included stint in Rockdale_ by Jeanne Williams.Temple Daily Telegram:

Milam County Historical Commission
Milam County, Texas

Dana Andrews' childhood included stint in Rockdale

by Jeanne Williams

Temple Daily Telegram - January 25, 2010

ROCKDALE - Actor Dana Andrews took center stage in Hollywood, but his father the Rev.

Charles Forrest Andrews was the family's leading man in his real-life role as a

controversial, cataclysmic-style Baptist minister in early 20th-century Rockdale.

Carver Dana Andrews was a mere 7 years old when the Rev. Andrews - esteemed Texas

Baptist General Convention state evangelist - accepted a call to become pastor of the

First Baptist Church in Rockdale, where he served as a "strong preaching" minister from

Feb. 17, 1916, to July 6, 1918.

Apparently, the minister's wife, Annis Speed Andrews, and the household of seven

"preacher's kids" - Wilton Wayland, Harlan Gilmore, Carver Dana, Charles Speed, Hazel

Annis, Ralph Lowery and Margaret Afton - kept the traditional low profile. The pastor's

eighth child, daughter Evelyn Hope, apparently was born in Rockdale.

Andrews, however, proved to be a controversial clergyman - prompting some members to

join the neighboring Episcopal congregation. Yet local church news stories allude to

the community's love and respect of the pastor and his family, even after they departed

Rockdale and a divided church congregation.

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Temple Daily Telegram.
All credit for this article goes to
Jeanne Williams and the Temple Daily Telegram