The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 75, July 1971 - April, 1972 Page: 274
566 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
Cooper, a former Yale professor who was respected in the academic
community. Several prankish students smuggled a howling dog into
the midst of a chapel service being conducted on the third floor of
the administration building." Infuriated at the interruption, the presi-
dent seized the animal (instead of the students) and hurled it
through a window to the ground below. The embarrassed Cooper
apologized the next day for his regrettable loss of control, but Norris
would not let the matter lie. He led a student revolt which informed
the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals as well as the
trustees of the University concerning the unhappy incident. Other
issues may also have been at stake, but it was this event and the
protest which followed that forced the resignation of the president.'
Thereafter, young J. Frank Norris was a person "to be reckoned with."
After his graduation from Baylor in 1904, Norris enrolled as a
student at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville,
Kentucky. He completed the three-year course in two years, and then
launched upon his full-time professional career." He pastored the Mc-
Kinney Avenue Baptist Church at Dallas until 1908, driving himself
to near exhaustion in building its attendance from thirteen to nearly
a thousand members.' While serving this congregation Norris became
the business manager of The Baptist Standard, the voice of Texas
Baptists, although not owned by them." When tension developed
between Norris and the editor, Joseph Martin Dawson, the latter
resigned and Norris assumed full leadership of the journal." He
Joseph Martin Dawson, A Thousand Months to Remember: An Autobiography (Waco,
1964), 57.
Ibid., 52; Bouldin, "Dawson-Norris Controversy," 2o. Cooper later became a teacher
at and president of Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, Texas.
"Norris accelerated his study at the Seminary because he had the responsibility of
supporting a family. He had married Lillian Gaddy on March 5, 19go2. At the time of
their wedding her father, J. M. Gaddy, was the general missionary for the Texas Baptist
General Convention. The Norrises became the parents of four children: Lillian, Jim
Gaddy, J. Frank, Jr., and George Louis. The Watchman-Examiner, August 28, 1952;
Norris, Inside History, a3; Tatum, Conquest or Failure, 67.
'The keys to Norris' numerical accomplishment was the gaining of "decisions" in the
home, and his insistence that a public declaration of faith follow-in his church, of course.
1oRitchie, "Life and Career," xo. He purchased a controlling share of stock in the
publication with the insurance money his wife received at the time of her father's death.
The death of Norris' father-in-law was shrouded in mystery. Norris and J. M. Gaddy were
riding on the rear platform of a train near San Marcos, Texas, in 19o6, when the latter
fell off and was killed. For further discussion see Bouldin, "Dawson-Norris Controversy,"
20.
1The major source of irritation, according to Dawson, A Thousand Months, 97-98,
was Norris' refusal to confine himself to the business side of the paper. On one occasion,274
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 75, July 1971 - April, 1972, periodical, 1972; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101201/m1/286/: accessed April 30, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.