Anniedeen Bateman Creel
February 13, 1922-November 19, 2019
In Memory of
James Lemuel Creel
Jan. 24, 1920~Aug.
29, 1989
My personal story began in Joplin, Missouri, and
has taken me around the world. My father was
Boyce Bateman and my mother was Villa Roark Bateman. My father, the youngest of
twelve siblings, was a World War I veteran. After Armistice in 1919, he trained
to become an eye doctor. He was a traveling eye doctor, or (as we now call
them) an optometrist.) Most of his work was done on the road rather than in
an office. He met my mother in the
farming community of Linwood, Texas and they married in that town.
The couple moved to San Antonio, Texas,
probably in late 1920 where they had their first home. My mother, Villa,
responded to an advertisement in the newspaper for a sewing girl. A Design
House managed by a Madam Meck placed the ad. Villa had sewn for her whole family
of 7 siblings and liked it. She trained as a dress designer with Madam Meck in
those early years of their marriage. Madam Meck soon recognized mother’s skills
and talents, and taught her even finer skills as her protégée. Mother never
used a pattern and could make any style of dress to fit any figure from a
clipping or sketch. She sewed because
she loved it, but the money she made was always welcome.
From San Antonio, the couple moved to
Joplin, Missouri. Boyce’s brother, M.B.,
had moved there and also was an optometrist.
The two families were close as their children arrived. M.B. and Clara
had 3 children. Boyce and Villa had one child, Anniedeen. I was born February 13, 1922. We lived in
Joplin or nearby Springfield for the next 12 years. Mother took in sewing to “occupy” herself,
even though my father always earned ample income—even through the Great
Depression. As I grew, my talents in music and art became apparent, and, being an
only child, opportunities for training were obtained in both areas. When I was five years old, a woman knocked on
our door and asked Mother, “Are you Anniedeen’s
mother?” She told my mother that I had been “taking piano lessons” by climbing
on the piano bench with her daughter during her own lessons. She suggested that
I be given piano lessons. My first piano recital was while I was five
years old. I have been able to read music since before I started school. My teacher soon
discovered I had “perfect pitch”—such a good ear for music that I simply
recognized the note wherever I heard it.
I also discovered I could draw anything that I could see. Mother got me art supplies and an art teacher,
and I haven’t stopped from then to now. Watercolor painting is a great joy even
in my 90’s!! Art has been my profession all these years. I’m still teaching it
at age 92.
My mother and father divorced due to his
abuse and alcoholism when I was about 12.
We moved to Alto, Texas, where Mother had inherited a farm from her
father, Walter J. Roark, at his death. Momma started a Burial Dress business to
support us as we had no support from my father. She bought crepes and laces and
made an assortment of very pretty dresses—open down the back. My Aunt Annie,
Mother’s sister, went with us and we took the dresses around the countryside to
funeral homes where she quickly sold them all. Fairly soon, individual women
discovered her talent and she had all she could do without the travel of the
Burial Dress business. As a matter of fact, she put me through college at
Stephen F. Austin in Nacogdoches, TX (1939-1943,) and I came out with no
student loans! Debt free! ---due to mother’s sewing. Mother had clientele up to the time of her death—just before her 80th
birthday in the fall of 1970. She died of pneumonia. She was with me in
Baytown although she still had her home in Alto, TX. She is buried in the Old Palestine Baptist
Church Cemetery in Alto, TX.
My mother was a good businesswoman—a
remarkably level headed and good person. She had great faith in God and had
received the Holy Ghost as an 18 year old girl in the spring of 1909. Harvey
Shearer brought the Pentecostal message to her community. Mother’s staunch
Baptist family, together with 100 other Baptists, were excommunicated from the
church because of their new Pentecostal experience and beliefs. Due to this,
the people built their own Pentecostal church, and this was the beginning of
the formation of the United Pentecostal Church in Alto, TX.
My majors in college were art and music. I
received my Bachelors Degree at Stephen F. Austin at age 20 and Masters Degree at
age 25 from Texas State College for Women, now Texas Women’s University.
I taught Music in Anahuac, Texas, for 2
years, then Art in elementary school in Conroe, Texas, the next 3 yrs. In 1947 I had an opportunity to teach Art at
Baytown Junior High. World War II was now over, and the economy was
booming—especially in Baytown, where houses and apartments for rent were
scarce. Nevertheless, my new principal assured me that the school system would
“see to it that I had a place to live” before I would sign the contract. By mid summer we had heard nothing of a place
to live, and Mother and I went home to Alto. Then my mother, a woman of great
faith, said, “We need to go to Baytown.” We drove to the school and then
started down a street leading from it. We passed what appeared to be an empty
house. Mother said, “Stop. Go ask a neighbor about that house.” We were told that the people had moved out,
and the landlord lived in another town. They gave us his phone number. Upon
calling him, he told us he did not know the renters had moved and consented to
rent to us on the spot. We had a house to rent within walking distance of the
school! So, in September of 1947, we moved to Baytown, TX. The principal was pretty surprised!! They did
not have a place for me to live, but GOD had provided—as He has done so many
times in my long life! Thank You, Jesus.
Rev. Forest Ford, pastor of the United
Pentecostal Church in Conroe, TX, introduced me to Rev. V.A.Guidroz, pastor of
the Pentecostal church in Baytown—Peace Tabernacle. I was asked to start a
choir as soon as we were moved. I remember that none of the men could “carry a
part” at first. After about 2 months of
practice, we had learned a few Christmas carols in 4 parts and were able to
perform downtown in the Light building. That year we had our first choir supper
in my house. I made a casserole (type of
hamburger meat and chili beans) with cole slaw, garlic bread, and punch served
in a thoroughly clean dishpan in lieu of a punch bowl. The next year the choir
had given me a real punch bowl!! That was the beginning of a long tradition at
Peace Tabernacle and a wonderful relationship with my new church family. Later, Bro.
Guidroz asked a group of 3 people, Tim Sonnenberg, R.L. Downing, and myself, to
get together and come up with a program that would help the church to retain
its young people. He was concerned about the number of young people who
“dropped out” of church during their teen years. The result of that meeting was the forming of
Conqueror’s Club. It involved an individual training program and social events.
The training was to help a young person to become self-disciplined in reading
the Bible, participating in church work, praying, etc. They used a check sheet
to chart their progress and received ribbons and certificates at the end of the
year according to their individual efforts. It was successfully carried out for
many years in the Bayshore area where 6 other churches also participated. (We also introduced this program in the Rocky
Mountain District when we moved there.)
This was the beginning of close family
friendships—which eventually resulted in true family relationships. The Creel family eventually became my own family.
I married Lemuel Creel in November. 1963.
He had been widowed, and his four children became my children. Lemuel
and I had one child together, Rocky, born in August. 1965. God had answered
another prayer of mine: to have a Christian family.
In 1971, Lemuel, Rocky and I moved to
Casper, Wyoming. Lemuel had been voted
in as pastor of the United Pentecostal Church there. We pastored that church
for 17 years until his passing in August of 1989. We had 26 happy years
together. We had both planned to retire (from teaching and pastoring) and go
teach in foreign Bible Schools. Though Lemuel did not get to live that dream, I
eventually was able to carry it out. In 1993 I received an invitation from Bro.
Stanley Scism, Foreign Missions Director of the United Pentecostal Church,
International, to teach in the Bible School in New Delhi, India. I went through
the A.I.M program and taught for 15 years—12 years in New Delhi and 3 years in
Sri Lanka.
At the end of that time, I came home to Casper, sold
our home, and in May of 2009, moved to Conroe, Texas, close to family and
friends. I now teach Art/Watercolor
classes and Search For Truth Bible studies to those interested in the
apartments where I live. I have met new wonderful friends and have seen 5
people in the Bible study group come to my church (Bethel Tabernacle) and be
baptized!! I feel like I have come “full
circle”---where my Art teaching career began many years ago.
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