Abilene

Ken never really left the Philippines. From Abilene he kept recording for the radio until about 2000, more than a thousand messages in all. He preached in the area assemblies, spoke at Kansas Bible Camp, and visited the nursing homes with a chalkboard. "When Mary Lou is able to go along and play, that is a real plus."

Doug was born in 1976, twenty-two years after Becky. In September 1980 Ken took three-year-old Doug to the service at Brown's Home, where Grandpa and Grandma now lived. Doug had memorized a verse for each letter from A to Q. He said A through D into the microphone "really well!!" Ken wrote, "He made quite a 'hit.'" A relative, Jenny Engle, gave him five dollars.

On 21 November 1987 Stan married Fiona Harvey in Torquay, England. Karen was the only Engle there. She sang, attended the bride, and brought home the pictures and a tape. "She was the right one to be over in England," Mary Lou wrote.

On Memorial Day 1997, Ken put on Kevin's Navy jacket and walked to the Eighth Street Bridge to give the prayer. He began by naming the service in his own family:

Began by mentioning KLE in Navy, 2 in Air Force + KES in US Army Air Corps.

Ken, Memorial Day 1997

From Ken's and Mary Lou's diaries and letters, and Gordon's stories "He Made Quite a Hit," "The Witness" and "Anchors Aweigh, My Boys."

Down the Hall

On Tuesday 20 February 1962, in the Philippines, Mary Lou took four-and-a-half-year-old Kevin along to her music classes. He was not really old enough for school, but that day he got to go. While his mother taught, he went off on an errand of his own: down the hall to the first-grade room, where his big sister Karen, six, sat.

Took Kevin to school. to my music classes. He visited Karen’s room.

Mary Lou’s diary, 20 February 1962

That same day the whole world was holding its breath over one man.

Listening to Voice of America and recording as JOHN GLENN is supposed to go into orbit in an hour.

Mary Lou’s diary, 20 February 1962

On his desk-diary page for that Tuesday, under Exodus 29:37, Ken wrote his own prayer:

O Lord my life I give to Thee on the altar.

Ken’s desk diary, 20 February 1962

A man was about to go around the world, and a little boy had gone down the hall to find his sister.

A Mirror from Japan

Fourteen years later the boy was on the far side of the world himself. In the spring of 1975, at seventeen, Kevin joined the United States Navy. In the first week of January 1976 a letter reached the house in Abilene.

First letter from Kevin in Japan! Happy! Says he’s at Yokota AFB. Tokyo and will go to his ship.

Mary Lou’s diary, 5 January 1976

That April, Karen’s twenty-first birthday fell on Easter Sunday. She came home at midnight. Ken was up at five for the sunrise service, the chapel was full that morning, more than ninety people signed the guest book at the afternoon open house, and the house was packed again that night. Mary Lou called it a “thrilling experience,” and at the top of the day, in red ink, she wrote:

Karen’s 21st birthday. Had wonderful day.

Mary Lou’s diary, Easter Sunday 1976

One present had crossed an ocean, from the eighteen-year-old sailor who could not be at the table. Ken wrote it down, with a little E squeezed in above the name, because Kevin Dyer was in town that day:

Presents — Kevin E sent mirror from Japan.

Ken’s diary, Easter Sunday 1976

From Mary Lou’s diaries for 1962 and 1976, Ken’s diaries, and Gordon’s story “Down the Hall” (28 Sep 2026).

Saved Early Age

In the back of Ken's 1976 diary is a page printed with red columns and headed MARCH CASH ACCOUNT. He never put a penny in it. Down the column where the money should go, he wrote his family, one name to a line, with what each needed.

Becky & Dave — Mathson work · baby coming / Karen — work, future plans / Kevin — Temptations, responsibilities · Education, HS, college or military / Stan — Job. Allergy. foot-toe. car / Gordon — maturing ✱ GRIT / Douglas — saved early age

Ken's 1976 diary

Douglas was a few weeks old. Year after year the line grew with the boy: saved at early age — will of God (1977), Not spoil. Spir. train. (1980), 1st grade, Kennedy (1983).

On 29 December 1986 Ken opened the new diary to two facing pages headed Memo for Next Year. On the right he listed his family. On the left he wrote a prayer:

CALL upon ME and I will answer thee and shew thee Great and Mighty things which thou knowest not. GMT Jer 33:3

Ken, 29 December 1986

Months later he went back to that page and, under Douglas's name, squeezed in a line with a caret pointing to where it belonged:

^ Baptized 14 Jun 87 So. Porcupine ON

the same page

From Ken's diaries, 1976–87, in Gordon's "Saved Early Age."

The Wedding

Kansas, the last week of July 1983. Hot, not warm. Mary Lou wrote "over 100" at the top of the page, day after day.

108° today in shade.

Mary Lou, Tuesday 26 July 1983

So hot can't put body outside door. Kansas all dried up! Hope heaven is cool!

Mary Lou, Thursday 28 July 1983

But on the Monday of that week she had written something else:

Engles left for Chicago and Mark Dyer's wedding on 30th

Mary Lou, Monday 25 July 1983

Engles meant Grant and Mabel, Grandpa and Grandma Engle. He had turned eighty-four the week before; she was eighty-two. Off they went, out of that Kansas heat, all the way to Chicago, to see their grandson Mark, Eloise's boy, married to Sue on Saturday the thirtieth.

The diaries don't tell about the wedding itself; Ken and Mary Lou were home that week. But on the Sunday Ken wrote one line that says the trip was made and finished:

Folks got home from Pross Hts.

Ken, Sunday 31 July 1983

Prospect Heights. Home again. That was July.

Nine Grandsons

Four months later, on Monday 21 November 1983, Mary Lou wrote:

G'ma Engle died today in Wichita.

Mary Lou, 21 November 1983

The next day: "Kevin Dyer arrived today." On Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, the family came in from everywhere. "Thanksgiving 1983 All Engles here because of Grandma," Mary Lou wrote, and Ken wrote down who would sleep under his roof that night:

Corkills, Dyer children — to stay with us — Mark + Sue and Craig — good visit.

Ken, Thanksgiving, 24 November 1983

Mark and Sue, married not four months. In July his grandmother had gone all the way to Chicago, out of that heat, to see him married. In November he and his bride came all the way to Kansas to see her buried.

On Friday the twenty-fifth Ken wrote, "Kevin Dyer spoke." And Mary Lou:

G'ma Engle's funeral! 9 grandsons carried her coffin. Beautiful day!

Mary Lou, 25 November 1983

Newbern Cemetery

That Christmas Ken and Mary Lou headed their letter to friends with Luke 2:10–11, and Ken told them about the grandsons:

It was impressive to see these young men, who owed so much to their grandma's prayers and counsel, carrying her to Newbern Cemetery. The Cemetery is on the corner of the Engle farm.

Ken, Christmas letter, December 1983

Four months, one trip each way.

From Ken's and Mary Lou's 1983 diaries and their Christmas letter of December 1983, in Gordon's story "The Wedding" (9 Oct 2026).

Spoke on Emmaus Road

On Saturday 13 June 1987, at Becky and Dave's home in South Porcupine, Ontario, Ken wrote down an ordinary day.

Dave talking to Doug + Christy. Dave filling baptismal tank — hot water.

Ken, 13 June 1987

Then turn signals, barbecued chicken and salad. And on the last line of the page: "Study = Luke 24." The road to Emmaus.

The next morning Dave baptized Doug, ten, and his own daughter Christy, and they told how they were saved. Ken "Spoke on Emmaus Road."

It was no stranger's text. In August 1963 Ken had driven out to Emmaus Bible School and offered to teach, and he was still grading its correspondence courses in 1999. Doug went on to Emmaus Bible College in Dubuque, Iowa, and graduated in May 2000.

On the night before his youngest son was baptized, a man who had taught the Emmaus road for twenty-four years sat down and studied it again, as though it mattered more this time.

From Ken's 1987 diary, in Gordon's story "Spoke on Emmaus Road."

Kevin's Graduation

On Saturday 21 May 1988 Ken and Mary Lou sat in the shade at an outdoor ceremony in Dallas and watched Kevin, thirty, receive his B.A. in Psychology from the University of Texas at Dallas. Printed at the top of Ken’s diary page for that day were the words Armed Forces Day.

The full story is now in Kevin’s own book: Armed Forces Day.

Two Homegoings

Mary Lou went home to the Lord on 12 April 2003, at seventy-two. The funeral was a week before what would have been their fiftieth anniversary. Stan set out a hundred cassettes of her music, and every one was taken. He played "Be Thou My Vision." Doug spoke, and in a letter afterward Ken lingered over him:

Next is Doug. You will enjoy him!! … He is the son of our "old age."

Ken, in a letter of 22 August 2003

Doug borrowed the family joke that Dad "only knows how to play the radio."

Ken spent his last years with Kevin and Cheryl in Texas, with long visits to Becky and Karen. His humor never quit. "If I ever forget," Kevin wrote, "he reminds me he is the dad."

Ken went home on Thursday 5 November 2009, in Abilene, four days before his eighty-fifth birthday. Kevin held his hand. Cheryl sang "Finally Home." A military honor guard gave him the honors he had earned over the Pacific, and he was laid to rest near Mary Lou.

Gordon, enjoy the journey.

Ken

From Ken's letter of 22 August 2003, in Gordon's story "The Son of Our Old Age" (1 Oct 2026), and family emails.

Sources

Gordon's stories used in this volume: He Made Quite a Hit · The Son of Our Old Age · Down the Hall · Saved Early Age · Spoke on Emmaus Road · Armed Forces Day · The Wedding (Ken's and Mary Lou's 1983 diaries and their Christmas letter of December 1983). Also Ken's diaries for 1976–2001 and Mary Lou's diaries and planners.