Eulogy for Charles Roland Wareham
January 11, 1934
February 19, 2001
My father, Charles Roland Wareham,
while on this earth was an imperfect human being, just as we are. He is now with his father in heaven, and he is whole in form and perfect in spirit. The last years of his life, he was imprisoned by his health away from the world of nature that he loved so much. He now soars free.
Daddy was born in Arkansas, but by his early teenage years he called Texas his home.
My dad and mom started their journey as husband and wife when they were teenagers just 16 years of age. They were very young, although for that time period and as country folks it was not that unusual. My dad, who most people called Charlie, courted my mom (her name then was Evaline
Frances Baker) while riding gallantly on his Schwin bicycle.
After their marriage he continued to ride his bicycle to and from his job on a small dairy farm. My mother used to accompany my dad to work riding with him on his bike. She sometimes slept on the feed bags in the barn while he went about his chores. After I was conceived, she did this more often, not wanting to stay at home alone. Therefore, in the safety of my mother's womb, I also had the honor of accompanying my young parents on that Schwin, riding down that bumpy, muddy road to the dairy farm.
I was the first of three children born to Charlie and Evaline.
The second-born was my sister, Iva Lachelle. One of her fondest memories, as a child, is of putting her small feet firmly on top of our daddy's much larger feet, and then being effortlessly waltzed around the room. These are sweet remembrances that we will always have.
My brother, Melvin Lee Wareham (who has crossed over before his daddy), was the third and last child of our household. It seems that he was so eager to be born into this world that he did not wait for my father to get my mother to the hospital. Charlie Wareham had the unique experience of delivering his only son at home. This event made headlines in a local Houston newspaper, complete with a 5x7 photograph of our mama, Melvin, our new brother, and our happy young father wearing a smile from ear to ear.
Daddy has always been a hard working man who took care of his family. Everyone that knew our father when he was healthy and strong knows that he loved the challenge of hard work and the satisfaction of looking back at a job well done. In Polk County near Moscow he built his own house and grew his own garden. He was an outdoorsman, and liked to hunt and fish. I even remember a few episodes of frog legs frying in a cast iron skillet after he had spent a wet evening out frog gigging.
He enjoyed the natural world that God created as our earthly home.
My father, Charles Roland Wareham, also enjoyed challenges of a more intellectual kind. He was an inventor. Not only did he tinker constantly in his own garage; he actually created inventions for at least two companies that he worked for,General Electric and Dressor. His inventions are owned by those companies, but that fact does not diminish these personal accomplishments. These improvements and innovations, contributed by his sharp mind, benefited his fellow employees, his employers and their customers.
His last position, before he became to ill to work, was as a Service Technician for Sears.
Charlie Wareham was the proverbial "Jack of all trades", with many self-taught skills. He learned to play a steel guitar; he experimented in photography, building his own enlarger and creating a darkroom from a washhouse. He once even built a boat.
My daddy could work on anything electrical, fixing small and large appliances. He could install or repair plumbing; and he knew carpentry well enough to build a house from the ground up. He also was a mechanic, who could take apart and rebuild just about any American-made car. "Buy American" was his motto.
What some of you might not know is that ever since he was 12 years old, he had felt a calling to the ministry. He wanted to share the word of God.
He never had a congregation of his own, but he certainly ministered to anyone who had the inclination to listen. Daddy loved talking about the bible, and he studied it all of his life.
He was a frugal but generous man, helping anyone who was willing to help themselves.
Daddy was not perfect, but even through our imperfections we teach each other. His faults were not few and I have inherited most of those traits (as the rest of my family will confirm). But through these shortcomings have come my greatest blessings in the guise of opportunities to learn, to grow, and to better understand my fellow man.
Daddy's skills and talents, also, were not few, and I fondly remember more of them every day.
I pray that as he soars free and joins his heavenly father, that he will hear me, now, proudly say that I am glad that he was my earthly father.
Charles Roland Wareham along with his young bride Evaline Frances Wareham supplied me with all of the tools that I need to survive and thrive here in our earthly domain.
Thank You, Daddy,
Your Daughter, Charline
