PLAIN VIEW HERITAGE FARM,
RURAL BRYANT, SD, PRESENTS:
Recollections of George Baldwin, by Jerry Ginther
GEORGE LEE BALDWIN
Serviceman, Loving Son and Brother and Uncle,
a Christlike Man
DESPITE APPEARANCES, GEORGE WAS NOT ALONE;
GOD'S EYE WAS ON HIM
A native of Puyallup, Washington, born of an old
pioneer French Canadian family that had gone to seed and
decline, George was a loving son to his parents, and
a loving brother to his many brothers and sisters.
The
Baldwin family became related to the Ginther and Stadem
families through the union of Perry Albert
Baldwin Jr. to Pearl Stadem-Ginther after her husband Bob
Ginther's crash and death. Pearl visited the Baldwins, who
were not Christians and tried to help them come to a saving
knowledge of Christ, showing them love by wall-papering
their livingroom and helping the incompetent, hard-beset mother with
cooking.
This involvement of a Christian lady in the
Baldwin family led to things George could not have
foreseen. As he grew up he must have felt increasingly
alone, for he was fundamentally different, unable to go
along with the self-destructive ways of this degenerate, dysfunctional family.
Pearl's influence and her prayers for him would change his
life forever, for later when he came to his hour of
greatest need, he would discover he was not alone, he was
God's child.
TRULY, A ROSE AMONG THORNS
In a godless, unchurched home and family, there can be much selfishness and discord,
and this was altogether true of the Baldwin home in those days. Mainly television watching went on as the
activity, and consuming cheap Wonder Bread sandwiches with
peanut butter and jam along with surgary
rolls and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches were the recreation and diet in the
ramshackle old house they had a few blocks from East Main
Street. Cooking was scarcely done in the kitchen, as the mother could not
manage that task.
House-cleaning was a rarety too, and so dishes were left
used and often food on them too, accumulating in heaps on the kitchen counter, with
scummy water standing in the sink with used pots and pans
often with decayed food in them.
Naturally, rats and mice
had a heyday in such squalor.
Showing that they had
no respect for anything, not even God, the Baldwin boys made themselves very
unpopular at school, and were often chased home by other
boys, but that didn't intimidate them. They did not care, they liked to quarrel and fight,
and provoke trouble by their profanity and cutting,
obscene remarks they made to schoolmates.
The environment these boys created provided the thorny circumstances which George had to combat or be overwhelmed by every moment he was with them.
HE TRIED HARD TO HELP HIS FAMILY
George was the great exception. He had a gentle
spirit and cared deeply about his wretched, unloving, woebegone family. He
bought groceries and also attempted to improve the home by
buying good furniture out of his army pay check. Was it
appreciated? George turned to Pearl Ginther-Baldwin one
day in despair. He had tried hard to help his family, but
his brothers were destroying the fine furniture he had
bought by carving on it
with their knives. "I am going to sell all of it!" he
told her, utterly discouraged. "But you wouldn't get
anything for it now," she advised him. "I guess you are
right," he replied, and let the furniture remain to be torn
apart.
CHRIST WAS KNOCKING ON THEIR DOOR
Note the brambles growing beside the door? They were real thorns in this household! Once Pearl encouraged the mother, Mrs. Baldwin, enough to
to do something special for the family, to make a nice
Jell-o with bananas in cherry Jell-O in a big pan. Mrs. Baldwin returned to the
refridgerated Jell-o to see how it was coming, and found
all the banana slices had been scooped off, ruining it.
She was in tears when she later told Pearl.
To set an
example where there was nothing of Christianity, Pearl
would pray with this loveless family whenever there was an
opportunity, and when she prayed once, she opened her eyes
and found the boys were looking around and smirking and laughing at her.
This was not a happy family. George was such an
exception, in fact, it is incredible to think of someone like
him in such a thorn patch--but he was!
He was
gentle, peace-loving, yet this was a home where the father
was known to take a two-by-four against the head of one of
his sons. He was giving and selfless, in a family that
knew only "me, myself, and I." He was longsuffering, in a
family that fought almost constantly.
HE GAVE HIS HEART TO
THE LORD AND WAS SAVED
George, seeing that his efforts were not doing
any good that he could see at home with his family, re-enlisted in the Army, and he
soon took very sick, and was diagnosed as having a brain
tumor. They could not do much for brain tumors back in the
Fifties, and it was nearly always a fatal thing. Pearl
Ginther-Baldwin
rejoiced, however, when she heard her prayers were
answered, for the mother Mrs. Baldwin received a letter telling her
that George, visited by a chaplain at the hospital in Coral Gables, Florida,
where George was transferred from another hospital for treatment, had given his
heart to the Lord and was saved. Still in his
twenties, George died soon after
being led to the Lord, January 6, 1956, and was buried in a
Puyallup cemetery. At the funeral service held in Hill Funeral
Home, Puyallup, the mother fainted, and men had to help her
back to her feet. Surely, this mother knew what had been
lost in George's passing, a young man who lived right
despite the very bad environment of his home.
LOVE AND FORGIVENESS--
BETTER THAN LONG LIFE
Did this young man's example and death change the
attitudes and lives of his surviving family of nine
brothers and sisters? For many years, perhaps not, yet his example could not be entirely forgotten.
His family continued on, but George's example and
testimony of what a man can be still shines.
Since his
death most of his family has also passed away, for they are
not long-lived people--though strong in youth they seldom
get beyond their thirties because of hopelessness, and the
sins that chain them. George was one who loved his wayward
family, provided for them, and forgave their inability to
return good for good.
He knew the right way and walked in
it. A good and faithful soldier in the armed forces and
in his family life, his family is the Family of God, and he
is comforted in the arms of Jesus. We salute you, a saint
of God!--by Ronald Ginther
**************
Note: Pearl Ginther prayed for this family over
the years. She visited a brother-in-law to her
husband in the hospital, and he came to a saving knowledge
of the Lord just two days before he died. She continues to
maintain telephone contact with surviving Baldwins, who
seem drawn to her of late and have furnished some of the
information in this account. This account has been read by
her and she contributed to it the main portions, but no
longer can remember the Jell-O incident which her son
Ronald recalls, since he visited the Baldwin house with her
on several occasions and knew the younger Baldwin brothers
from those visits, being aware of what was going on during
the incident with the furniture as
well.--Editors
A Brief Biography from his Obituary
George L. Baldwin, 27, died Jan. 6, 1955, at Coral Gables, Florida, Veteran's Hospital. He was a cook in the United States Air Force stationed at Humestead Air Force Base, Florida. He had made his home in Puyallup for the past 12 years and was a native of Ryderwood, Washington. He was a veteran of the Korean War, and had been in the service for nine years.
A Note from the Web Master
Nephew of George Lee Baldwin
I along with my still living uncles of Darrell and
Franklin all have spoken of George as the saint he became.
Uncle Darrell Baldwin once said of George how next to my mother
Pearl Ginther they were his closest examples of what a real
Christian was. He also had no doubt that George was
in Heaven. My only memory of George was when he came by to
stay at home before he died, and that was over 40 years
ago. He was standing outside their tiny house, listening
with dismay to the laughter going on inside over his mother finding that her Jell-o
dessert was ruined by her sons. Proudly she had led my mother to it, so happy about what she had created, only to find
it maliciously destroyed. From the front door I saw the
three younger uncles kicking up a storm in riotous laughter
in their bedroom over the incident.
But there was wonderful Uncle George who felt
his mother's pain, standing where he had greeted us, alone.
I went out shaking my head over such a shock, a shock that preserved this memory until now, though I was just a little boy at that time. He asked if I wanted to go for a
walk to get away from the unpleasant scene, and he took my hand upon my
saying yes. He was such a saint, given over to the Lord,
that in walking with him was like walking with the Jesus
Christ Himself. I still cherish that short walk with him
and the memory is held in my heart to this day. I know that
Uncle George and I will have many more such walks in Heaven
soon.--Jerry Ginther
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