Memories of Wallace Heritage - Official website of Rev. JO Wallace

PREFACE
After my father, J. O. Wallace, died, I began to collect keepsakes about him. My heart was
overflowing with gratitude for my father’s love and kindness to me. He was always thinking of
his family and planning ways to help us. When we had problems, the problems were his as well.
He would call or write with encouragement and offers to help. I became curious. How did he
become such a wonderful person? What were his parents like?
J. W. Wallace, my grandfather, died when I was age 14. I did not live near him until the last few
years of his life. These last years were dominated by his suffering from heart failure. I did not
want my memories of my grandfather to be full of his suffering. Fortunately, my mother, Mary
Wallace, wrote about J. W. Wallace in the books titled: Pioneer Pentecostal Preachers and
Moving On…The Story of J.O. and Mary Wallace. My aunt, Marie Wallace, wrote about J. W.
Wallace in the book titled: History of Pentecost in Tennessee. The text of these writings is
included in this book with the permission of Mary and Marie Wallace. Much about J.W.
Wallace is included in the History of the West Nashville Pentecostal Church: Viewing the Past of
the West Nashville Pentecostal Church. Quotations from this church history book are included
in the J.W. Wallace Family Memories book with the permission of Pastor Ron Becton.
Relatives and friends of J. W. Wallace shared their memories with me. These memories are
included in this book.
This story is told so that the J. W. Wallace family and members of the Nashville Pentecostal
churches can remember him. So that later family generations will know how he lived. So that
all people will know how God can take a young boy with very little of this world’s goods,
abandoned by his father, bankrupted by the Great Depression, and transform him into one of the
world’s richest men (a man God loved, a man dearly loved by his family and friends). He
showed us how to overcome mistreatment and failure with gentleness, kindness and laughter. He
made us aspire to be better people, to care for and love our families and to love God.
Poppa and Grandma Wallace are now enjoying heaven with their deceased children: Cleatus,
Onell, Naomi, and Bonnie. They are spending eternity together with their Lord and their many
friends and relatives. Poppa, I was not privileged to spend much time with you during your
earthly life, but I will see you in heaven. We will enjoy eternity together in paradise.
Please share this story and the message of Jesus Christ with everyone. The J. W. Wallace story
can be downloaded from this website in memory of my father: jowallace.com. (Select the
DOWNLOADS tab. Then select the Memories of Wallace Heritage.
James O. Wallace, Jr. (grandson of J. W. Wallace)