Gift of a Lifetime -- Walter McMickle

Gift of a Lifetime

Walter McMickle

Friends and family honor the memory of this man of uncommon honor,
integrity, faith and devotion to family.

Walter C. McMickle
January 7, 1923 — May 22, 2002

Those who loved Walter C. McMickle look back on his cherished life and see a man of uncommon honor, integrity, stalwart faith in God and steadfast devotion to family and friends.

Walter's sister, Edna Jacobs, remembers when he was six years old and "we were all going to our grandmother's plantation and he was dressed in knickers. We all got ready, but when we got in the car to go we couldn't find 'Bubba' as we called Walter. We found him sitting on the back steps, crying. He would not get in the car until we let him change out of those knickers. I also remember when he was first baptized in the Oats Avenue Baptist Church in Columbus, Georgia," Edna said. "He was just a teenager and I was sitting with him when the Lord spoke to him and he went to the altar."

His nephew, Bill "Skeet" Birchfield, grew up in the same Columbus household and remembers "how proud I was of him when he went into the Air Force in 1944. He inspired me. When I had a chance to join the Aviation Cadet program in the 1950s and become a pilot, he gave me the drive and the reason to stick with it. When things got rough, I'd think of him and not wanting to disappoint him.

Walter and Heidi McMickle at their 1963 wedding. "He was a man of exceptional honor," she said.

"If he told you something, you could take it to the bank. I had the pleasure of living a life with him. My children knew him as Uncle Bub. I knew him as my brother."

Franz Meer was in the 449th bomber group in Monroe, Louisiana, with Walter for six months of training, preparing for the invasion of Japan. "He was one of the great guys there, who had so many friends," Franz said. "He was there when I got married in the service and he kept in touch when my family live in Milwaukee. He traveled a lot before he was married. He always took us out to dinner and insisted we take our three children. One time we were talking about lobster and how, in Wisconsin, we rarely have it. He goes to Maine and ships us live lobster for the whole family.

"He was one of the greatest friends I ever had," Franz said. "He was the most down-to-earth, most gracious person I ever knew. He always thought of others; never himself. Whatever we were doing, he was never raising his voice or saying an unkind word to anyone."

Al Ondis met Walter in 1954, when "we we were in the same apartment in Greenville, South Carolina. He had a big booming, friendly voice. I would watch him meet people and they instantly liked him. When you got to know him, you loved him. He was so generous and loyal. He lived for a while in New York City," Al recalled. "The only good thing that happened to him in New York was that he met his beloved Heidi. He talked about Heidi all the time. When he met her, he said he met the love of his life."

Walter with nephew Bill "Skeet" Birchfield. "He was my brother," Skeet said. "When things got rough, I'd think of him and not want to disappoint him."

Heidi's sister, Erna Leibrandt, remembers introducing them. "I was a manager at the Top of the Sixes restaurant and Heidi was visiting me from Germany. I saw Walter enter the restaurant and sat him near Heidi and said, 'Perhaps you'd like to have dinner with my sister.' He thought it was a big joke because we had different colored hair. He told her story after story in English and she didn't understand one word. She just kept saying, 'Ya, ya.'

"He was so generous," Erna recalled. "He would give you his last penny and never have a worry. He would never tell them he was going through hard times. After they were married and he traveled, he would call Heidi up and put on his southern accent and sell her magazines over the phone. She never recognized him. He loved teasing her."

Heidi knew from the beginning that Walter was a man of extremely strong faith. Yet, he offered to convert to the Catholic religion when they got married. "He went for two sessions with the priest and then the priest came out and said 'Let's leave this man alone. He will not make a good Catholic.' I asked him why. The priest said he had already learned more from Walter than Walter could possibly learn from him!

"Our son Chip had a diving accident in a swimming pool when he was 12. Walter was a strong person, but I heard him sob in his office over Chip. He never got over that. Chip's first seizure was on Father's Day. Walter was in New York, but he came back immediately. He said that was the saddest day is his life. His faith gave him strength. He said God would not have taken him eight years later if it was not better for Chip and it is His decision when he takes His children. 'We cannot double-guess God,' he would say. 'He is in control.'

"I cannot remember any night Walter would go to bed without studying the Bible," Heidi said. "But the greatest joy in his life was when his grandchildren started arriving. They made him so happy. He adored every one of his children and grandchildren. He was extremely attached to them."

Alex James, Walter's friend and business associate, said, "If you were ever one of Walter's friends, you were a friend forever."

"Money was not his primary motivation," Heidi recalled. "He wanted to do what God wanted him to do -- and to provide for his children. He was a man of exceptional honor."

Walter's career began with McGraw Hill in New York in advertising with Textile World magazine. He worked for McGraw-Hill in New York and moved to Atlanta with the WRC Smith publishing firm. He later worked for Billian Publishing, leaving in 1987 to start International Fiber Journal with several associates.

Walter asked Alex James 30 years ago to help organize a new buyer's guide for a magazine. They've been fast friends every since. "If you were ever one of Walter's friends, you were a friend forever," Alex said. "He never had anything derogatory to say about anyone. Even during some of his darkest days, when he was worried about Chip, he was very pleasant.

"One time he took a group of clients to a fishing lodge in Highlands, North Carolina," Alex said. "When we were out in a boat, he looked over on the bank about 400 yards away and told my son, Dan, to get the .22-rifle and shoot a water moccasin that he saw. None of the rest of us could see it. My son shot the snake and Walter said he had killed it. Later we went over there and saw the dead snake and we all laughed - Walter had killed it before we left the dock and he and my son played a joke on all of us."

Another longtime business associate, Ralph Benoy, recalled they had "such a great friendship. We both worked out of our homes on his International Fiber Journal. I would be working and I'd get a call from Walter saying we needed to get together for breakfast for a meeting, but it was all fellowship. He just wanted to talk. At one of our breakfasts, my granddaughter from Richmond joined us. She would eat off of my plate and off Walter's and when she poured syrup, it went everywhere and dripped all over him. He just laughed and didn't complain at all."

Walter Riley remembers frequently enjoying barbecue with Walter at the Old Hickory House, "where we always solved all the world's problems. We worked together and when I came to town he and Heidi

Walter and Al Ondis were friends and associates for 48 years. "When you got to know him, you loved him," Al said. "He was so generous and loyal."

made me feel very comfortable very quickly. Watching Walter work a crowd was worth the trip. He always could come up with great stories and had a wonderful delivery. When you heard, 'How you doin' pardner,' you knew he was coming and I would always get ready for that vise-like handshake so I wouldn't get crushed."

Don Yeskoo remembers Walter as a "young advertising man and a fellow Christian who brought a bright spot to my day when he made his sales call. He was also a counselor as he taught me the dynamics of reaching the textile trade. To our family, he was special. As we struggled financially in the early years of marriage, he would visit and he would take us out to dinner. We will never forget the special birthday party for Donna, our young daughter, at a fancy restaurant. He was always giving. And then he met Heidi and his life was complete. I shall never forget the depth or context of his prayers and his total love for Jesus."

Don Jackson knew Walter for 29 years. "Walter stood by his friends no matter what," Don said. "And he loved the Lord: he was a truly dedicated Christian man. There was no compromising with Walter. Either something was right in God's eyes or it was wrong. He never associated with anything not pleasing to God. He loved to pray and loved to talk to God. He would always invite me in his house to have a cup of coffee. "Then, he would say, 'Heidi, would you please bring us of cup of your wonderful coffee.' He would always bring up his family in conversation and say he was so thankful that he was so blessed with his children."

"Money was not his primary motivation," Heidi said. "He wanted to do what God wants him to do ... and provide for his children." The family in 1996, from left: Mike Braswell, Walter, Kathleen and Chris Braswell, Heidi and Ryan Braswell, Jeannine and Danielle Jones and Mike Jones. Born later were Tyler Jones and Scott Braswell.

That blessed feeling was mutual. Kathleen Braswell, Heidi and Walter's oldest daughter recalls her father as a "wonderful, loving, fantastic Christian person. He had such strength, not just inner, but outer as well. He used to give all our friends big bear hugs and nearly cracked everyone's ribs.

"When I was young, he would pick me up and sing 'Let Me Call You Sweetheart,' " Kathleen recalled. "He would make up songs to entertain us on long trips. On Saturday mornings, the three of us would crawl in bed and he would make up stories for hours. After church he would make omelets and he would pay us a dollar if we could name all the ingredients.

"He always gave us 100% support. Our coaches would beg him to come and cheer our teams because his voice was so loud."

Kathleen's husband, Mike Braswell said Walter was "a role model as a father and a husband and for his relationship with Christ. In a very materialistic world, he kept an exceptional ability to keep things in perspective about what was really important: his family, his friends and his faith. In terms of being a grandfather, he was a great and a wonderful story teller. The kids were always in awe of his stories."

Jeannine Jones, the youngest McMickle daughter, remembers her father as "very much the center of the family, very strong. When I was young, almost every night he would sit on the couch and hold me and tickle my arm. Or just hold me. He was so excited to be a daddy and he was always there for me. He always made a point of telling me he loved me.

"People are very emotional when they are pregnant," Jeannine said. "Once when Mike and I were first married and I was pregnant, Dad heard us having a disagreement. He walked around the block with me. He didn't tell me I was right or was wrong, he was just there and listened to help take me away. By the time I came back I had a different perspective.

"One thing my dad used to do when I was six or seven was take me on dates. I would get dressed up and he would go around the house and come to the front door and my mom would answer the door and he would ask for 'Miss Jeannine McMickle' and I would come down the stairs and I would ask, 'Are you here for me?' He would then take me up the street to eat ice cream."

Jeannine's husband, Mike Jones said Walter was an inspiration for many reasons. "I never heard him cuss or swear or raise his voice," Mike said. "He literally and figuratively sat at the head of our family's table and he was very eager to say the first prayer. He took great pride in his relationship with Jesus and his religious leadership served as a model of stewardship that other fathers and grandfathers can only hope to aspire to."

Walter's strong faith inspired his friends and associates, but he especially hoped to engender similar depths of belief in his children and grandchildren. When Kathleen was leaving for a trip to Germany in 1989, Walter inserted a note into her luggage.

"I shall not load you down with a great many dos and don'ts, but based on my years of experience, there is but one true source for genuine happiness and meaning," he wrote. "Turn your life completely to Jesus. This is very difficult. We always tend to reserve some areas for personal supervision. These areas always, without exception, suffer.

"You have a Bible. Read a bit every day. The Holy Spirit lives in me and has brought me through many impossible situations. He is also always with you. This is the source of my comfort and praise today. My heart goes with you, my darling. Love, Dad."

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