Following lead of man behind it all
25.09.11
The joy in Dan Shipley's life far outshines any lingering bitterness.
In perhaps his last football season on Earth, the 82-year-old former San Antonio resident leans back in his living room chair in Burnet, his eyes reddened by touching tributes paid to him by his family, including high-profile grandsons Jordan and Jaxon Shipley .
Rising stars in football, the Shipley boys recently expressed heartfelt sentiments about the cancer-stricken minister, who survived grinding poverty as a youth during the Great Depression.
Worse than that, he also endured an alcoholic father's rage and the loss of his mother before his 13th birthday. In spite of it all, Dan Shipley made it his calling to preach the word of God and to pour out love and support for his wife, Wilma, and their four children.
Not to mention 13 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.
“He wasn't raised in a perfect Ozzie and Harriett household,” said Brownwood High football coach Bob Shipley , one of the ailing minister's three sons. “Because of that, I just have so much respect for him.”
Source: San Antonio Express