Daniel Franklin White, an Old Friend, Passes

 

 Pictured is "The Crusaders" trio (early 1960s), including, from left: Frank White, L. Steve Crain, Wayne Nichols, and Pianist Mary Bennefield Nichols.

Pictured is the late Frank White of the Mountain View Community, Greenville County, SC.

   The funeral service for Mr. Daniel Franklin (“Frank”) White, 76, was held at Gum Springs Pentecostal-Holiness Church, Taylors, SC, on Friday, Feb. 11, 2022.

I attended that service, ascending tall steps to the house of worship. My parents were members of Gum Springs PH Church when I was born. My family (including my three-years-younger sister, Shirley) attended Gum Springs until I was almost 10 years old. I had not seen the inside of that church house since then. The lovely sanctuary appeared smaller than I recalled — the eyes of a child see things differently than those of a 74-year-old.

At age six, on a Sunday night, I accepted Christ at Gum Springs when Mrs. Josie Foster led me in a sinner’s prayer. Her husband was Mr. Bruce Foster.

Instruments other than the piano and organ came to Gum Springs when I was around six or seven years old. Mr. Jack Shaw, later a successful builder/businessman in Greenville, SC, brought brass-instrument music to Gum Springs. I recall the Sunday, he and his brother, Larry, played hymns: Jack on trumpet; Larry on trombone. Soon, Jack, along with some Holmes Bible College students, helped teach some Gum Springs folk — including my dad (trumpet) and Uncle Fred E. Crain (trombone) — to praise the Lord on instruments. 

Frank White’s family was one of the largest at Gum Springs. Frank’s older brother, the late David White, played trumpet in the band at Blue Ridge High School and became a great instrumentalist. 

Gum Springs PH Church split while the Rev. James H. Thompson pastored, and a great many people organized Faith Temple Church, Taylors, SC, under the Rev. Thompson’s leadership. The White Family left Gum Springs and attended Faith Temple. At Faith Temple and at Blue Ridge High School, Frank White became a scholar and good trombone player. He, the Rev. Wayne Nichols, and I sang in a trio we called “The Crusaders” while I was a tenth-grader at Greer High School. Wayne’s late wife, Mary Bennefield Nichols played piano for us. Mary and her sisters, Jeannette and Joyce, sang in their own Bennefield Sisters trio. Frank dated Jeannette, and I dated Joyce. I was the youngest of the six songsters and enjoyed great times and good fellowship. 

Some of Frank’s family returned to Gum Springs as years went by.

(Read my summary of the funeral service, following the below obituary.)

OBITUARY   

  Daniel Franklin “Frank” White, 76, resident of Taylors, SC, widower of Myrtle Jane Maples White, passed away on February 6, 2022, at his home surrounded by family. 

Born in Travelers Rest, Frank was a son of the late Alonzo R. White and Blanche E. Butler White.
Frank was the fifth child of six children. He played a trombone in the Blue Ridge High School band and continued playing for churches he attended.

He worked in maintenance at Allen Bennett Hospital in Greer, South Carolina, for ten years and then worked as a cable splicer for Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph Company’s work center in Greenville, South Carolina, for over nineteen years. Frank’s supervisors at Southern Bell sent him on the most tedious projects to ensure that they were completed correctly and not in a slipshod manner—often correcting mistakes made on previous work. He took early retirement after the proliferation of fiber optic cable.  

As long as his health allowed, Frank truly enjoyed cutting wood and planting a garden. He was a very hard-working man and instilled that work ethic into his children.

He deeply loved his children and grandchildren and enjoyed many hours of talking on the phone with his brothers.

He was a generous man—always willing to help those in need.

Frank had a love for God’s Word, memorizing many passages. His goal in life was to live a holy life that pleased God. 

Along with his wife, Frank was predeceased by a son, Jonathan P. White, a daughter in law, Jennifer S. White, a grandson, Daniel F. White III, and great grandchildren, Kawliga and Christy Ann.

The many who mourn his passing include a son, LtCol Daniel “Danny” Franklin White, II, USMC (Ret.) with wife Elnora L. White of Huggins, MO and a daughter, Jane Brookshire with husband Ron Brookshire of Taylors, SC and his grandchildren, Hannah White, Ethan White, Luke Scronce, Lydia White, Jamie Scronce, Ian White, Phillip White, Erik White, Noel White, Christine White, Anders White, Victoria Izaguirre, Maria Brookshire, Jacob Brookshire, and great grandchildren, Gracelynn, Sakiaa, Valeria, Magdelena.

A funeral service will be conducted at 3:00 PM on Friday, February 11, 2022, at Gum Springs Pentecostal Holiness Church (PHC) with Rev. Joel Sexton and Rev. Sherrill Green officiating. Burial will follow at Faith Temple Church Cemetery with Rev. Raymond Burrows officiating the committal service. 

A visitation will be held prior to the service from 2:00 PM until 3:00 PM at the church. 

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Gum Springs PHC.

A very special, heartfelt thanks to Ron Brookshire for being our dad’s nurse and making it possible for our dad to pass away at his own home.

The Standard Cremation & Funeral Center is assisting the White family.

THE FURNERAL SERVICE

  The Rev. Sherrill Green said about Frank White, “He was a good man. If it wasn’t done right, he wouldn’t want to do it. Frank was ‘Mr. Right.’ He was misunderstood sometimes.” 

Green talked of things Frank taught him. Green was in his first pastorate when he met Frank. Green, now 76, was then 30 years old. 

“Frank didn’t like foolishness,” Green said. “Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child.”

Green had two daughters when he pastored Gum Springs. He described Frank as very intelligent, smart, and very rigid but a good man. 

“They took care of their children, loved their children,” Green said of Frank and Myrtle. 

Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph Company used Frank to do hard stuff, Green said. He told about a time the company wanted to put a woman worker repairing lines “down in the hole with Frank.” Frank talked to a company manager and the company worked with Frank to avoid putting female co-workers with him in tight underground areas. 

He loved the poor and had a big heart, Green said, quoting Proverbs 10:22: “The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it.”

He taught me how important having a house was, Green said, adding, “He drove an old car and knew how to save. Frank loved the Lord.”

Green said Frank taught him to love “cow’s milk” and brought him two gallons of it every week. Frank and Myrtle taught Green and his wife to love fresh honey and how to go and pick their own peaches, especially “Georgia Belles.”

They taught us the importance of memorizing Scripture, said Green, who spent four years serving the Gum Springs congregation.

“Frank wanted to please the Lord,” Green said. “I taught him to have fun … go to the park in Greenville.” 

Green read 2 Timothy 19-10: “Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.” 

“Christ de-vitalized Death,” Green said. “We can declare the works of the Lord, even at our funeral. … The power of sin is death, but ‘It is finished.’ In his resurrection, he [Jesus] knocked the teeth out of death.”

Green said of Frank: “He’s probably done played old Peter a song on his trombone. He’s my friend, today and always. He is my ‘go-to man.’”

The Rev. Joel Sexton spoke, referring to 2 Timothy 4:7-8 KJV: “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.”

Sexton used an acrostic, as follows, of the word “FAITH” in honor of Frank White:

F — Family. Frank was a family man, Sexton said. He loved his family and desired to see all come to know and love his Savior. 

F — “He was frank,” he said. Ms. Genelia had butted heads with him. She said, “He was just Frank.” 

F— Faithful. "We also learned to drink unpasteurized milk," Sexton said. "I convinced him we needed only one gallon [per week]." Sexton referred to Frank’s late brother, Wilbur White, who operated a small dairy featuring “raw cow’s milk” made available to customers who could take milk from an in-house honor system and leave monies in payment. 

On the Sunday that Frank’s younger son, Jonathan, died, Frank had promised a gallon of natural milk to Pastor Sexton. Though his son had passed on, Frank delivered, that night, the promised gallon of milk to the pastor.

Sexton listed “A” words that reminded him of Frank White. 

A — Abiogenesis. “Life comes from nothing” (part of Frank’s belief in Creation).

A — Adjure.  “to urge earnestly.” 

A — Acoustic. Frank was musically talented. Sexton had heard him sing a hymn, singing a different “part” on each verse: lead (melody), alto, tenor, and then bass. Frank could do it by either singing or playing trombone, Sexton said. 

I — Involved. Frank locked up the church building after services, Sexton said.

T — Truth. “Frank was big on ‘truth,’” Sexton said. “God’s truth dismissed or trampled on upset him.” 

H — Helpful and Humorous. Helpful on purpose, he said. “Humorous as a by-product.” 

“Frank was not a believer in stop signs,” Sexton said, commenting on Frank’s highway driving habits. “There are no stop signs between here and heaven for God’s children, but if there were, he wouldn’t have stopped,” Sexton said.

Mr. James White, Frank’s younger brother, called Frank’s passing a “celebration,” saying, “His folded tent sleeps temporarily.”

James said his big brother “had his back” and listened. 

“He was intelligent without arrogance and despised debt,” James said.

He said Frank and Myrtle met in 1968 and had regular devotions, a “family altar.” 

“Myrtle could cook!” James said. “Frank was a Christ-follower who feared God. He stood in reverential awe — that’s the fear of the Lord. He often asked God for a Great Awakening. He loved the Bible.” 

Frank memorized many verses and passages, James said. He listed some of Frank’s favorite verses: 

Psalm 119:89: “For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven.

Psalm 119:1-3: “Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord. 2 Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the whole heart. 3 They also do no iniquity: they walk in his ways.

Deuteronomy 4:9: “Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons' sons.”

Joshua 1:8: “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.”

Jeremiah 9:23-24: “Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: 24 But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord.”

Malachi 3:16-17: “Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another: and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name. 17 And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.”

Matthew 7:21: “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.”

Matthew 24:12-13: “And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. 13 But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.”

Acts 5:32: And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him.”

Galatians 6:14: “But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.”

Titus 2:11-12: “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, 12 Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world.”

James 4:8: “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, 12 Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world.”

1 John 2:1: “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”

2 Peter 1:5-11:  And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; 6 And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; 7 And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. 8 For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. 10 Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: 11 For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.”

1 John 2:17: “And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.”

“Frank is in ‘forever,’” James said. “Goodbye for now, Frank White. See you soon.” 

“The Rev. Joel Sexton said, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.” He concluded the funeral with a prayer.