“Barry and Sue were like parents to me,” Clyde said.
Two Are Better Than One
Clyde traveled with the KCM crusade team, occasionally flying on the ministry’s jet. For eight years, he served as the sole catcher in Gloria Copeland’s Healing School. During all that time, he never discussed his personal struggles with Kenneth or Gloria Copeland.
In 1987, four years after Clyde’s divorce, Kenneth and Gloria were holding a meeting at the Mabee Center in Tulsa, Okla. While the choir sang, Sue Tubbs leaned over to Gloria and said, “I sure wish one of those young ladies could be a wife for Clyde.”
“What?” Gloria asked. “I thought Clyde was married.”
“Oh, I thought Clyde had told you.”
Sue explained what had happened.
Tears filled Gloria’s eyes.
“I hope God has a wife for him, too.”
One day during the 1987 Southwest Believers’ Convention, Clyde realized he wouldn’t have time to feed his children before the book tables opened and the evening session began. Looking over his team of about 30 volunteers, his eyes fell on one woman in particular. He decided to ask her for help.
“Would you mind taking my kids to the Hyatt Regency Hotel, getting them some food, and charging it to my room?”
“No problem,” the woman answered.
Her name was Marion. She was a pharmacist from California.
“The kids had such a good time with Marion that they hung out with her for the rest of the convention between services, when they weren’t in Children’s Church,” Clyde remembers. “After the convention, we drove her to the airport to catch her flight home. As the plane took off, I heard sniffling coming from the back seat.”
“What’s going on back there?”
“We want Marion,” Colette and Doug said at the same time.
That caught Clyde’s attention. Marion had a profound effect on his children.
Deciding he needed to get to know her better, Clyde began spending time with her over the phone. The next year, in March 1988, the two were married. Colette and Doug were in the wedding.
A Fork in the Road
Two years later, in 1990, Clyde and Marion were vacationing in Florida when Marion saw a job listing in the "Orlando Sentinel." “I feel the need to call about this job,” she told Clyde.
BVOV : 13
