FORT WORTH, Texas (BP)–Gertrude Murphy, an African American woman with a passion for missions, has been connected with the Southern Baptist Radio and Television Commission in some way since its move to Fort Worth, Texas, in 1954.
A full-time employee for more than 27 years, she said, “I always wanted to be a missionary. And being with the RTVC has given me a wonderful opportunity to be part of a witness for Jesus all over the world. Even though I haven’t been a missionary in a foreign country, God gave me the street sense to help a lot of people in this area.
“I believe the Lord wanted me here. I’ve had other opportunities, but I’ve always been drawn back here because the purpose of this place (RTVC) is to bring people to the Lord.”
Murphy first became involved with the agency when Paul Stevens, then director of the RTVC, offered her father (Walter Townsend) a job in 1954.
“Dr. Stevens called Daddy and told him to meet him on Camp Bowie Boulevard, which was all it took to get him to quit his job,” she said. “At the time Daddy was a disk jockey for KXOL Radio in Fort Worth. We all drove out with Daddy to meet Dr. Stevens when there wasn’t much on Camp Bowie except open fields with no buildings. I remember Mama (Lillie Townsend) saying to Daddy, ‘What did you do?'”
There had already been a connection between the Stevens and Townsend families for many years. Townsend worked for Paul Stevens’ father in Mississippi, and when the Stevens family moved to Texas the Townsends moved with them. Murphy’s father had continued working for Stevens’ father until the latter retired.
Stevens, formerly pastor of First Baptist Church, Ada, Okla., and a trustee of what was then the SBC Radio Commission, had been named the agency’s second director in 1953. Samuel F. Lowe, who in 1942 had been named as the agency’s first director, had died in 1952.
At the 1954 Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in St. Louis, Mo., “television” was added to the commission’s name and permission was granted to move the operation from Atlanta to Fort Worth.
“Daddy’s first job was transporting the mail, working in the mail room and cleaning the building,” Murphy said. “Then he moved to distribution, where his job involved cleaning film and logging it in. And I worked with him all through high school.”
Murphy’s father died in January 1968, and in 1970 she joined the commission to do the same job he had done — cleaning and logging tapes.
“Over the years I’ve run the snack bar and been a mail clerk for distribution,” she said. “Then when Dr. (Jack) Johnson became president, I was named special projects hostess.”
With the merging of the RTVC into the new North American Mission Board in June, Murphy shares an uncertainty about her future with many of her co-workers. She is, however, confident God will sustain her.
Murphy said she had seen many changes at the RTVC over the years, and in most of the changes felt God was at work.
“I don’t think the people out in the churches have ever really understood just how much really good work for the Lord is done here,” she said. “When I was working in distribution, I had to call people all over the country, and I was always amazed at how many people are being
reached with our programs.
“We’re still doing a lot of good work here and I’m told that when the RTVC is merged into the North American Mission Board (NAMB) next June things will be bigger and better, that we’ll be even better equipped to bring people to Jesus. That’s what everything ought to be about, bringing people to Christ.”
Born in Fort Worth, Murphy said she was blessed in that no one has ever had a finer Christian father and mother. Her mother died in early February of this year.
“I had the advantage of tremendous spiritual help at home,” she said. “Daddy always said that you must first praise the Lord for what he has done for you, then praise him for what he is going to do for you and have the respect for yourself to be decent.”
Murphy, who graduated from I.M. Terrell High School in Fort Worth and attended Texas Southern University in Houston for two years, said she has been a member of the same church all her life. She also said that church is now right in the heart of an area where drugs and crime are rampant.
“There are a lot of kids around my church who need the Lord,” she said. “Too many people are standing back and saying, ‘Those boys are bad.’ I go right up to them and tell them about the good Lord.
“I get calls in the middle of the night from people who need help. And I go into the projects to help them, praying, ‘Here I am, Lord, use me.’ Sometimes it seems as if all I’m doing is putting a Band-Aid on, but I keep on trying.”
Murphy’s current responsibilities include being a liaison with needy families in the community, something she takes very seriously.
“We’ve helped a lot of people with food, clothing, housing and utilities,” she said, “and we’ve helped three kids get into drug rehab programs.”
Murphy is no shrinking violet when it comes to proclaiming the Lord. Shortly after her mother died, she went to a house where drugs were being sold and invited everyone there to attend the funeral. She said some addicts respond in a positive way simply because she has the
courage to offer them God’s love and grace.
Her husband of 34 years, Arthur Lee, and only daughter, Jan Michelle, sometimes worry that she has too much courage.
Murphy has recently taken on as a special project a drug-addicted teenager who was living in condemned housing, providing him food, clothing and other needs.
“He says he’s clean now and doing like I told him to do,” she said. “He says he’s going to be somebody, that he’s going to get in church and do right. He’s trying to get into the Job Corps.”
Murphy has never met a child, no matter how drug-addicted and violent, that she would throw away.
“They’re all God’s children,” she said. “And if we don’t accept the responsibility for telling them about Jesus, who will?”
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