William Revis Combs

March 14, 1913 - June 11, 2001

Snappy eh?

One piece of produce at a time.....

Revis & his sister Bea

Revis, Nora, Sandy, Martha & Harold Combs

June 10th 2000 at Opal's Birthday Party

WILLIAM REVIS COMBS

By Sandra Combs Boyette

(Read by Dr. Cecil Cave)

When Benny and I were children, we were treated to a tour of North America. It came in installments, and it happened mostly in the summer, but sometimes in January and February, the most appropriate months to check the tomato crops in Florida. It started with a trip in 1955 to Niagara Falls. Imagine driving in a '55 Oldsmobile from here to Canada and back in the summer, without air conditioning, but with a five-year-old and a one-year-old. I don't think even Revis would have considered such a thing if his young wife hadn't been a willing party to this adventure!

To our daddy, there may have been no greater joy on earth. His love of family and his love of travel gave us a childhood filled with experiences that will never leave us.

On another one of those trips, a later model Oldsmobile had an air conditioner that chose to stop working, in the summer, in Memphis. This was pretty serious, and we wandered around Memphis for a very long time, trying to find someone to fix that air conditioner. The wandering around didn't bother Daddy one bit. In fact, he took pleasure seeing a new and different place, even though he may not have had in mind just exactly where we would end up. At some point, hot and tired, one of us started whining. And, of course, the other one followed suit.

"Daddy, we're lost. We're never going to get this air conditioner fixed. We're hot. We're lost."

And with that little grin that accompanied his unwavering calm, he answered, "Kids, you're not lost until nobody can find you."

It stopped our whining because we had to think a lot about how you would absolutely know for certain that no one could find you.

And to me, it became advice for life. Wander, I did. Lose track of the map, I did. But I knew, always, that I wasn't lost because there was always someone to find me, and I knew that to be true because my daddy said it was so.

Revis was a fearless risk taker, maybe because in the world where he grew up&emdash;those beautiful hills of Fancy Gap in the first half of this century&emdash;life was hard; but instead of having the omniscient news media to tell him every hour how wrong and hopeless and unfair life could be, he learned his lessons directly from hardworking, loving people who saw all obstacles and all opportunities as about equal in magnitude.

No one told him he couldn't start a business, and no one told him that the odds for its success were low. So he started and sustained a successful business.

No one told him that he should be networked and that he should develop a niche in his industry and that his corporate image was everything. So he just kept going to work before dawn and getting home after dark, laughing at anything that sounded pretentious, never investing his time in gossip or scandal or any other kind of meanness, as he might have described it.

But somewhere along the way, someone had told him&emdash;probably by example&emdash;that family is precious and that integrity should mark all of one's dealings with others; and in everything he did, those two lessons shone brightly.

Above all, there was the matter of his faith. Toward the end of a dark night at the hospital not too long ago, he said that he and the Lord had been talking all night, and that he felt better because of it. I'm sure he did, and I'm sure he does this day. His relationship to his Creator was real and a way of life for him. His love for us&emdash;for my mother, my brother, and me&emdash;gave us a hint of what the love of God is. His love for his larger family&emdash;his siblings and their families, our grandparents, his daughter-in-law and son-in-law, his precious grandchildren&emdash;carried that message, too.

To his memory, I pay tribute. To his Creator, I give thanks for the life of this good man and for the grace that gives him&emdash;and us&emdash;eternal life. Amen.

Sandra Combs Boyette

(Read by Dr. Cecil Cave)

Revis Combs Daughter Sandra

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