HEADLINE EVENT

Yes, that's Pat Boone at the podium, me in blue, 
far right, half a century ago....

Pat Boone was coming to our small central Washington town—to sing and PREACH! He was the headline event for our valley's combined- churches spring worship service, held in the local football stadium. As the most youthful member (mid-20s) of our daily newspaper staff, I was picked to cover his visit. One problem: I didn't identify with the youth pop culture. My heroes (as a violinist) were Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and the like.  While my friends tuned in on their black-and-white televisions to Dick Clark's “American Bandstand” and watched selected teens (in modest clothing) wiggling away in a crowded dance space, I didn't. It just wasn't my style. And so, the least pop-culture-aware member of the newspaper staff found herself set up to interview the pop singer famed for his gleaming smile and white bucks—and for his Christian testimony.

I'd been so busy with my other newspaper assignments (which included obituaries and wedding writeups) that I didn't take the time to visit the library and find out more about him. (This was the early 70s—way long before the internet was just a few finger taps away.) Thankfully, the other reporter called to this press conference (a college intern for the local radio station) had a question ready as we gathered with Pat Boone and local dignitaries in a quickly-set-up interview in the girl's locker room of a local junior high. Well, he was speaking at the local town stadium, just a few hundred feet away.

The radio's reporter asked: “What is your favorite Bible verse?” Now, that made sense because, besides his fame as a pop song star who had his first “single” (best-seller record) at age 21, Boone was known as a clean-cut guy who identified as a Christian. Hollywood celebrities came to Bible studies at his home! I was surprised—through shouldn't have been—by Mr. Boone's quick answer: “Philippians 2:12: 'Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.'”

It wasn't “work FOR,” as though salvation had to be earned, but “work OUT.” Later, as I encountered that verse in my own Bible reading, I connected the dots (and understanding) to the following verse: “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” In other words, the Christian life is a partnership: the Great and Awesome God of all Creation, stooping down to teach and train His human creations to live in a way that honors Him.

 When I last checked the internet (something I couldn't do back in the 1970s!) Pat Boone was still living, turning 89 on June 1. His wife Shirley, whom he married just out of high school, died just short of age 85. His biography details all his “singles” and high-charted hits. His 45 million records sold. How many were “gold.” His awards. But whenever I think back to meeting the man in white buck shoes—who not only sang but preached at the all-church Sunday worship our community held in the big football field (and I was there to photograph it)--I remember his confident answer, quickly quoted from scripture.

 One of Boone's hits was titled “Love Letters in the Sand.” I can almost picture that happening in a guy-girl date at the beach. But his higher focus was the “love letter” God wrote all of us, not in sand, but on a crude wooden cross where His son Jesus died for past-present-future sins. Pat Boone may have been the most famed singer the 50s and 60s of love songs, but I think he'd agree that the greatest love song remains this: that Jesus loves us, this we know.