CAMERON – The Rev. Corrina Gambrell takes her place behind the pulpit Sunday as the newly installed pastor of Cypress Springs Presbyterian Church, circa 1823, the little, white church at the crossroads of the Harnett and Moore County lines.
The preacher’s sermon is titled “A Heavenly Homecoming” for the 11 a.m. service to coincide with the annual homecoming luncheon, where the congregation gathers in celebration with everything from fried chicken, country ham, casseroles, vegetables, and cakes and pies galore.
“I’m originally from the northeast of England, born and raised just off the Scottish border, so Cypress is more than a perfect fit,” Gambrell says about her native hometown of Alnwick, also home to the 11th century-built Alnwick Castle. “It’s like going home, back to my roots.”
Alnwick, Gambrell says, has risen to fame since the popular “Harry Potter” movies were filmed at the castle.
“I visited Cypress Springs in November last year, and I immediately felt at home,” says Gambrell, who pastored previously for nine years at Rocky River Evangelical Presbyterian, a small country church in Abbeville, South Carolina. “I wasn’t aware at the time of their Scottish heritage and roots, but once I learned of this, I knew I was exactly where I needed to be.”
Long and storied history
Longtime member Terry Myers will tell you the little church has seen just about everything from “stern preachers, expulsions for dancing and payment to preachers in eggs.” But Cypress Springs Presbyterian Church never has seen anything like that 1965 summer for the funeral of ruling elder Daniel McNeill, who was married to Aunt Ethel Mae, who without a doubt and bar none, was the ugliest-looking woman in the history of Moore County.
Uncle Danny and Aunt Ethel lived in the old homeplace, a two-story house along N.C. 690 with a winding wrap-around front porch. The old homeplace still stands today about two miles from the little town of Vass, where my Mama, her sisters and brother grew up in the home built by their daddy.
The McNeill homeplace was shared back in the late 1950s and 1960s by Uncle Danny, Uncle Frank, Aunt Ethel and her brother, John Cameron, who dipped a lot of snuff and swore a ghost lived in the attic.
Aunt Ethel had droopy blue eyes and frizzy hair that looked like it never had seen a comb or hairbrush. Aunt Ethel spent most of her time in the kitchen with Uncle Frank, where Uncle Frank mainlined one Pepsi-Cola after another until Uncle Frank died from diabetes. His corpse was laid out in the silver coffin in the homeplace living room.
“Don’t your Uncle Frank look good?” Aunt Ethel pushed my cousin, Jay, and me up to Uncle Frank’s coffin.
The living room reeked of formaldehyde, and Uncle Frank did not look good. But, Uncle Frank, still looked better, we surmised, than Aunt Ethel.
Uncle Danny and Aunt Ethel had been feuding in 1965, when Uncle Danny went to what was then Moore County Hospital for a routine hernia operation that Uncle Danny didn’t survive. His death stunned folks in the community and at Cypress Springs Presbyterian Church.
Aunt Ethel and Uncle Danny’s funeral
Aunt Ethel vowed to my Aunt Mary Frank, my Aunt Vivian and all of Uncle Danny’s sisters that she would not attend Uncle Danny’s funeral. Aunt Ethel changed her mind at the last minute and perched herself on the front pew as the preacher told us what a good and Christian man Uncle Danny was, and how Uncle Danny would be missed for his leadership and devotion to the little, white church.
The preacher delivered the benediction and the pallbearers began to wheel Uncle Danny’s coffin out of the sanctuary. And that’s when all hell broke loose, and Cypress Springs Presbyterian Church had never seen anything like it before, and never has since.
Suddenly, Aunt Ethel dives headfirst onto Uncle Danny’s coffin.
Aunt Ethel is boohooing and full of guilt for feuding with Uncle Danny, and she has a hold with both arms, like nothing you could imagine, on Uncle Danny’s coffin. Carnations, ferns and baby’s breath are falling from the coffin floral spray, and the wheels of the casket gurney are giving way.
“Mother Mary of God!” my Aunt Mary Frank is saying. “Someone, contain that woman.”
Mama’s mouth is agape in disbelief.
“Mrs. McNeill!” June Blue, the funeral director, was pleading with Aunt Ethel. “Mrs. McNeill! For the love of God, Mrs. McNeill!”
Last we saw of Aunt Ethel was the funeral folks getting Uncle Danny’s coffin into the narthex, with Aunt Ethel still aboard.
Aunt Ethel, bless her heart, died at age 69 on Sept. 16, 1971.
Epilogue
Today is homecoming at the little, white church, where the Rev. Gambrell will deliver her sermon and bless the luncheon in the fellowship hall over the potluck feast of fried chicken, ham, casseroles, salads and the many cakes and pies along the long tables.
“She is very excited since it’s her first ‘Homecoming’ with us,” longtime member Mary Smith says. “I’m not sure who will be attending, since so many of the older folks have passed on. But we are gaining new members each month. So, you just never know who might show up at Cypress.”
There will be plenty of fellowship and conversation about the recent success two weeks ago of the annual Harvest Sale, with proceeds to benefit the Vass Food Pantry; Thanksgiving and Christmas day meals for those in need, and 90% for recovery efforts for residents of western North Carolina in the wake of Hurricane Helene.
Plenty of memories, too, for families with loved ones who have taken their eternal rest in the cemetery by the church including former Moore County Sheriff Lane Carter, J.D. Johnson, Elmer Cameron, Mary Pope, Malcolm and Herminia Blue, Dougald and Mary McFadyen and beloved music director Chris Stewart. Mama and her sister and brother. Uncle Frank, Uncle Danny and Aunt Ethel, too.
A newer generation of church members are making their own stories to someday be told, but the story of Aunt Ethel on that summer day of 1965 at Uncle Danny’s funeral is one for the Cypress Springs Presbyterian Church books. And if you still are wondering, every word of it is the gospel truth, so help me God.
Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at billkirby49@gmail.com or 910-624-1961.
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never get tired of hearing about your family at Cypress Springs. Homecomings on earth are wonderful with spiritual intake of the Word and delicious food along with fellowship, but nothing like the homecoming in heaven when he reads out name in the book of LIFE !