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Post by topgsfan on Oct 9, 2018 9:14:12 GMT -5
The link didn’t work for me Jane. Jolene, try searching Jeb Britt Baker and click on In Search of a Heavenly Father. It has a video with Jeb actually talking to CBN telling them his story. It's printed there also. I hope this works. Let me know if it does OR does not. |
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Post by topgsfan on Oct 15, 2018 21:17:36 GMT -5
The link didn’t work for me Jane. I hope my later info helped. It's really sad how losing his dad really affected him. |
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Post by topgsfan on Nov 10, 2018 16:46:16 GMT -5
CANNONBALL YODEL
I have a live video of this when Elton was on Jimmy Dean's TV show in 1966
and he was strumming that guitar so fast! I love it! I wish it was on You Tube.
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Post by topgsfan on Mar 14, 2019 19:50:45 GMT -5
Such a sad and touching real life story, but ends well.
Jeb Britt-Baker: In Search of a Heavenly Father Elton Britt's son. His father's real name was (James Elton Baker) Britt was a name given to him when he went to California to be in the :"Beverly Hillbilly Band" and sung, played guitar and yodeled.
CBN.com “I had no control over my life at all. Nothing else was important -- my children, my wife, my farm, nor my life. Nothing except cocaine and alcohol.”
Jeb Britt-Baker is the son of the 1950s country-western singer Elton Britt. As a boy, Jeb idolized his father and loved spending time with him on the family farm – the same place where Jeb and his family live today. Back then, it was a perfect place to grow up.
“This was always a home base,” says Jeb. “It was a secure place that just never changed… I always knew that whatever circumstance arose, whether it be good or bad, I was in safe hands always.”
Jeb also loved to accompany his celebrity dad to his shows.
“He was my hero. He really was. I mean, he played music, and the crowds loved him.”
But at the age of twelve, Jeb’s life took a tragic turn for the worse.
“He was going on tour for about a week and stayed overnight in Daytona with us. I’ll never forget. He showed me three chords on an old harmony guitar. I wasn’t very interested in playing at that time.
“He went to Pennsylvania on his way to New England and had a heart attack. My first reaction was I wanted to go see my dad in the hospital. My grandfolks had decided against it, figuring it would upset him more than it would do him good. A couple days later he passed on.”
When the shock of being suddenly fatherless wore off, it left a burning anger and resentment in Jeb’s spirit.
“For a long, long time, I just never forgave. It was always someone else’s fault, of course, but I never forgave my grandfolks for not allowing me to go see my father. I just never got to say good-bye.
“It’s hard to describe but the sense of loss that I had… The security wasn’t there any longer."
Jeb started drinking to escape the hurt. The drinking led to drugs, and the drugs led to violence. Jeb’s life was spinning out of control.
“My temper got to the point [of] a bad mouth and outbursts. Probably in my mid-teens the drugs had pretty much taken over my attitude.
“I never really wept and grieved. Never got that out of my system. So, the hurt transposed into anger. I’d unleash it at any given point. It wouldn’t take but a drop of a hat. Escape was my only objective. Drugs and alcohol became my main priority.
“It ultimately led to getting in a real serious fight right here on the farm back in the early ‘80s.”
This time, however, the consequences were more serious, and Jeb wound up in
prison for a number of years. His time there left him with one overriding thought: “This is someplace I never want to be again. Never.”
When Jeb got out of prison, he tried to do better, and in 1991 he met and married Sheryl. Together they moved back to the horse farm where Jeb had spent his summers as a kid. But it wasn’t long before he fell back into his old habits of drinking and drugs.
“He always had an undertone of angry,” says Sheryl, “but I didn’t recognize it because we both were in the same thing. I drank, he drank, and we ran with the same crowd. It was normal at that time."
Sheryl began to realize this wasn’t a healthy situation once they began having children.
“I think every woman recognizes when the kids come that your life needs to change,” says Sheryl. “After the children came he seemed to get worse.”
Even with the birth of their two daughters, Hannah and April, Jeb couldn’t control the anger and drug abuse that had his life headed for disaster. But the first ray of hope came from an unexpected place – a recurring dream.
“Night after night,” Jeb recalls. “After the fourth night I described it to my wife. I saw a figure of what I presumed to be a man with hands outreached for me. I knew that whatever this dream was, it was a significant thing in my life because it wouldn’t leave.
“And she says, ‘Don’t you see? God’s reaching out to you.’ I kinda laughed it off but on the 5th night, I said, ‘Lord, if it’s You and You’re going to come to me again tonight with this same dream, we’re going to have a talk.’
“By 2:00 I woke up having the same dream. But my heart was different. When I understood what it meant and the realness of it, I just confessed. I thought, Lord, I don’t know how I can be forgiven? I don’t understand but if I can be, please come into my heart. Forgive me. My life is no good anymore. I have to have something of substance and a constant in my life. If You’re that constant, my life is Yours.”
Jeb felt a release.
“The tears came. I woke up the next morning with a thought in my head and a desire to look in the Bible. I read Ephesians 2:1-10. My trespasses, all the things that I’ve done, are forgiven. No matter how severe, how bad, they can be forgiven. They are forgiven with the acceptance.”
Accepting Christ didn’t fix everything in Jeb’s life overnight. Those old methods of getting his needs met took work to break. But what was different was that now Jeb had help in overcoming his habits.
A short stint in rehab and lots of time spent studying his newfound faith, and now his family hardly recognizes him.
Sheryl laughs, “He’s a lot different. He used to look for ways to hurt people and now
he’s changed. He’s looking for ways to help people. He’s bringing people to the Lord and singing for the Lord. It’s just remarkable what the Lord has done in Jeb’s life and mine.”
Jeb says, “I had changed. I wasn’t just clean with regards to alcohol. My spirit was clean as well. I was a different person.
“In my faith as a Christian I felt that security. This is how I felt as a child when my dad was alive. All these years I’d been seeking something to fill that void, to make me feel that security. There it was, all the time, there it was…”
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Post by youneverknow on Apr 26, 2019 15:43:24 GMT -5
That's a wonderful way for things to turn out. God will fill our lives with joy if only we let Him.
How's life been for you Jane? How are those babies? Are they walking and talking by now?
Jolene
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Post by topgsfan on Apr 30, 2019 12:34:14 GMT -5
Jolene, happy to find you here again. I have been good so far except back aches sometimes, but I think everyone has those! Hope you have been doing well and glad I was able to post the article about Elton Britt' s son so you could read it. Watching the video and hearing him talk about it and the expression on his face made me want to cry because you could really see and tell how much his dad meant to him and how much he missed him.
We now have 4 great-grandkids...2 girls and 2 boys from our grandson and his sweet wife. I think they have their limit now. This last baby was just born on the 25th of April....weighing 9 lbs and almost 4 oz... but she went 10 days past her due date. OUR youngest son weighed 9 lbs 7 oz.
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Post by topgsfan on May 1, 2019 15:50:09 GMT -5
Oh! By the way...to answer your question that I forgot to...those babies arne't babies anymore! Both of the girls are in primary school and little brother is going on 17 months...I think...and walking everywhere! He is just as precious as he can be. He's always happy go lucky and laughing. Then there's the newborn baby brother. Right now he is sleeping all the time. I am so proud of our grandson and his wife. They are always doing something with them...whether it be teaching in ways school teachers can or playing with them or taking them to fun things to do. They are amazing! Our grandson teaches 5th grade and his wife teaches either 1st, or 2nd, I think! She's taught kindergarten, 1st, 2nd and I think 3rd grade....so I can't keep up with it. We plan to go see them some time pretty soon. They live in Arkansas.
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Post by youneverknow on May 3, 2019 23:37:19 GMT -5
Hiya Jane,
They grow up so fast. You should be so very proud of your grandson and his wife and all the kids. They are awesome.
We celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary a couple of weeks ago. Seems like we've always been together and yet it seems like it was just yesterday we got married.
Jolene
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Post by topgsfan on May 6, 2019 16:58:08 GMT -5
Jolene...Congratulations! That's something to be very proud of! Anymore marriages don't seem to last very long. My husband and I have been married so long I can't hardly remember not being married. We got married in September 1954.
Thank you for your compliments on my grandson and his sweet little family. My husband and I have been very blessed. We plan on going to visit them with our son and his wife around the end of this month...and I can't wait!
It's been so good hearing from you again! I come here pretty often just to see if you have posted anything. This place has gotten so dead and it's so sad!
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Post by youneverknow on May 9, 2019 9:13:36 GMT -5
Jane, I want to hear all the details after your family visit.  1954 ...so it will be 65 years this September. That is so awesome. Are you flooding this week Jane? That dang rain just keeps coming. We had over 10 inches in less than four hours on Tuesday but then it has cleared off for the last day so most of the water has been pumped out now. When it’s gets like this the levee districts aren’t allowed to let the rain drain into the Brazos and have to pump it elsewhere. Now the forecast says it’ll start again this evening and rain through Saturday with another 5 to 8 inches expected and another 10 to 12 inches possible. The storm that’s coming is the one from your direction so I’m sure you got it too. The Tuesday mess we had came in off the Gulf and was only supposed to be an inch. They called that one wrong. The Brazos is the river closest to us and it’s very likely to flood more as water comes downstream. Those poor people south of us keep getting it when it rains upstream. Rosenberg already flooded earlier this week. I’ll mosey around again soon. Jolene |
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Post by topgsfan on May 10, 2019 22:53:48 GMT -5
I don't know how much rain we got,but it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. We didn't even have any standing puddles in our yard which was really surprising.
Our trip to to see our kids will be shorter than I would like because our son can only get off work for about 5 days total...including the weekend. Anyway, we will really enjoy what time we do have with them. They just recently bought a bigger house and we're anxious to see it, also,and our grandson said he can't wait for us to see it.
Jolene, are you on Facebook? I've been on there for several years. It's one of those things I like and sometimes I don't. I have friends and relatives on there that I enjoy interacting with.
I just looked at the clock and it's almost 11pm, so I better hit the sack!
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Post by youneverknow on May 15, 2019 23:37:32 GMT -5
Jane,
I know you will make the most of every single minute of your visit. : )
I'm not on Facebook but I know a lot of people really enjoy it.
I do read my email. Do you still have my email address?
Jolene
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Post by topgsfan on May 18, 2019 19:51:14 GMT -5
Jolene,does your email start with Stand? If it does I still have it. The email I used for this website may be obsolete now because I never use it anymore. I'll have to check it out and see if it still works.I do have another one that I use all the time.
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Post by youneverknow on May 22, 2019 12:55:44 GMT -5
Jane,
Yep that's the one. I haven't changed my email address in...heck, years and years and years and years. Don't even remember when now.
Jolene
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Post by topgsfan on May 24, 2019 10:43:38 GMT -5
Jolene,then I do still have it. I haven't been able to get into the email that I used for this site because I haven't had any reason to use it...so I'm glad I saved it in my main email. I'll have to send mine to your email.
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