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Ronnie Williams: The Messenger
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| By: Shawn Jenkins |
February 10, 2009 |
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People often come into our lives and make an impression on us, but it is rare that a person makes an impact on an entire town. Ronald "Ronnie" Williams did just that in Senatobia for 16 years.
You may not have known him personally, but you knew who he was. Ronnie was also known as the "Sonic Man" who cleaned the parking lot while quoting scriptures from the Bible and sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. "Are you ready?" Ronnie would ask. "Our Lord and Savior, Jesus, is coming soon!"
Ronnie's journey to Senatobia began in 1950 at Saint Joseph's Hospital in Memphis where his mother gave birth to him, left and never returned. He was in the care of the hospital's nuns when a nurse's aide, Alta Williams, asked if she could take him home. Alta and her husband, Thomas, adopted Ronnie.
Four years later Thomas passed away. With the help of extended family, Alta raised Ronnie.
When Ronnie was 15 years old, Alta developed cancer and his life took an unexpected turn, a turn that led him to his passion; studying the Bible and worshiping the Lord. To give him something that would always be there for him Alta introduced Ronnie to the nearest Baptist church and encouraged him to read the Bible. Two years later, Alta passed away.
At 17, an uncle just released from prison took over as Ronnie's guardian and quickly shipped him off to the Peace Corps. It wasn't long until Ronnie showed back up on the uncle's doorstep. "We still don't know how he got back to Memphis from California," said Ronnie's cousin and guardian Bob Chambers, "he could have walked for all we know." The uncle then washed his hands of Ronnie. An aunt by marriage, Andy Williams, took Ronnie in and found him a job in a Memphis workshop.
In the early 80's Andy asked her son, Bob Chambers, to take over as Ronnie's guardian and in 1993 Bob and his family relocated to Tate County bringing Ronnie to the town he would thrive in.
His path to Senatobia was complete. Ronnie became a member of Highland Baptist Church and started working.
"He worked at the Baddour Center for five years and did a great job, but he started to work more hours than he wanted. Ronnie came to me and asked if he could semi-retire," Bob said laughing.
"I made him a resume and a few days later he was cleaning the parking lot at Sonic."
Ronnie's job at Sonic gave him the opportunity to connect with many people each day and his schedule, three days a week four hours a day, gave him the opportunity to roam Senatobia and share the Gospel.
To understand Ronnie's passion, you must understand his nature. Once Ronnie made the decision to do something he strived to become the best at whatever it was. He competed in almost everything he did. From cleaning the parking lot at Sonic to playing ping pong to announcing little league football games, Ronnie had to be the best that he could be. If no one would compete with him, he would compete against himself trying to break his own records. Once after announcing a football game Ronnie asked Bob if he thought he was better than Howard Cosell. Bob answered, "Ronnie, Cosell has nothing on you!"
To say that Ronnie had an extraordinary memory would be an understatement. He knew the winner of every major sporting event from every year, baseball to boxing, he knew the results and what the deciding factor was.
For example, Ronnie could tell you which team won the World Series, who the winning pitchers were and who hit the winning run from any year. Most importantly, Ronnie memorized almost the entire Bible. He once told Bob that he had memorized over 100,000 verses. "Ronnie, there are only 31,000 verses in the Bible," Bob responded. "Well I guess I memorized some more than once," answered Ronnie.
As if memorizing the Bible wasn't an amazing feat in itself, Ronnie also comprehended the meanings of the scriptures.
"When I was going to Highland I had Ronnie teach our Sunday school class a few times," said friend James Stevens, "he could break down the message and made it easy for others to understand. He was truly amazing!"
Ronnie's competitive nature coupled with his memory made him God's perfect messenger to spread His word. "When it came time to 'get down to business' as he would put it, he could only see one thing about a person-their soul," wrote Jennifer Adkins. "He left an example for us to follow that has eternal significance."
Ronnie truly loved his family that included his internal family, his fellow members at Highland, and the citizens of Tate County. He had nick names for many of his friends. He called Bob "Professor"; Carolyn Stanford from Sycamore bank earned the name "Cheerleader" after cheering Ronnie on for picking up trash in the bank parking lot and he called his landlord Peggy "Fried Eggs." Peggy told Ronnie that the name was not becoming, but she changed her mind when he told her why he called her that; he loved fried eggs.
Ronnie was an extraordinary messenger who had a job far greater than cleaning a parking lot and he did his job well. "Saved two souls today," Ronnie would often say in his nightly phone calls to Bob.
On January 17, 2009, Ronnie passed on from our city. He will no longer walk our streets. He has joined his Father in Heaven, who he longed to see, to walk the streets of gold, but he will long be forgotten and greatly missed in our community.
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©The Democrat 2010
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Greg Smith |
Feb, 10 2009 |
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I guess we all have our Ronnie Story. I got to know Ronnie back in the 90's when I used to play softball with First Baptist Church. He never missed a game. Ronnie would sit behind home plate and talk baseball to anyone who would listen. Whenever a particularly good player would come up to bat, Ronnie would break away from his current story and announce that particular batters stats. He knew how many homeruns I'd hit that season to the number. He'd many times ask me if I knew Jesus. I always ansewered, "Yes,but thanks for asking."
Ronnie was a truly beautiful person and I thank God that I had the honor of knowing him. May God speed him to his reward. There has never been one more deserving.
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