This morning I found my mother beaten to death in her home. The Police have at least one suspect under arrest and at least two others are suspected. I will write more about this, but first; you need to know more about my Mother.

Bertha Lee Pippin was a good woman; not just from the point of view of her only son.  My three sisters, Beverly, Marilyn and Marlene will agree with me when I say that we all four owe her a debt that we shall never repay.  She raised us as good children, God Fearing adults, and always saw the best in us and everyone around us.  She was religious, but more than that, she lived the tenants of the New Testament.  She obeyed the GOLDEN RULE and was willing to give everyone a second, third and fourth chance.  It is a horrible way to die; but then there is no good way to die unless as my Mother you are firmly convinced that there is a heaven and a better life after death. I am sure that she is in heaven tonight and living a far better existence than she ever had here on Earth. 

I have talked to Bryant Ellis and his wife at KBIX and they understand that I do not want to think about going back on the air anytime soon.  As for this web site, I am putting it on hold for a few  weeks.  I have no idea when I will be back to the business of INTERNET BROADCASTING.  Never in my worst dreams did I think that my Mother would be one of those murder statistics that I have been writing and broadcasting over the years.  If you believe in God, pray for me and our family. My Mother did believe and she is no longer being bothered by aging, ailments and pain. If you don't believe in GOD, then give us some positive vibes and someday, I will be back; but not now.  I need some time. Time is a great healer. So I need some time before I can even think of being a normal guy on the radio again!   

Now back to the horrible events.  The investigation is not finished and some of this is a surmise on my part. Could this have been all about some Halloween Trick or Treating? My Mother evidently knew the teenagers who killed her.  One was a girl in the neighborhood who had always been unkind to my Mother;  calling her an " Old Lady" and always talking trash to my Mom.  My Mom was always smiling about the 16 year old and saying  that this girl might change her ways and might grow up to be a CHRISTIAN.  The boys involved had been involved in abusing a pet bull dog across the street and I wanted to report it to the authorities but my Mother and the neighbor across the street were terrified of these teenage boys and begged me not to report them.

I remember my thoughts at the time.  If they were doing this to animals, then probably, they might do something like that to a human.  Never did I believe that human would be my Mother.  

Mother for some reason  had given them only one piece of candy; I guess  because she believed 16 was a little old to go trick or treating.  A neighborhood girl told me that they were quite upset with Mother. No one realized just how upset. 

When my sister called in a panic this morning because her daughter had tried to get in the house and the doors were locked and she could see Mother in the dim light on the couch not moving, I knew that she was probably in trouble.  Kim went to get the extra door key and by the time I drove up; her husband was standing in the door way with it cracked open and he was just short of being in hysterics.  I knew she was dead; but probably of a heart attack.  After all she was in frail condition and had had cancer surgery. 

But when I walked into the blood splattered living room with my Mother propped up on the couch with her little dog sitting on her lap.  I was on automatic pilot.  It was as gory as any movie that I had seen.  I had seen dead people before covering news stories but this was all too real.  I was this woman' s son. This was a woman who thought no ill will of anyone.  A gentle woman who met a violent end.  9:30 in the morning and a teenage girl asking for a glass of water. She went to the kitchen to get the water and then in came the boys with the baseball bat. This is what I feel happened  The Police are still trying to put it all together.  

My Mother was scared of these kids and never would have let someone in carrying a baseball bat.  It was brutal, I would guess from seeing the wounds, at least 10 swings, maybe less, but many more than needed.  It was a killing of rage against a woman who wished no one harm.  

Fate was not kind to my Mother. She  was a  woman who had not had an easy life. Her own Mother had died as a result of giving birth to Bertha Lee.  A teenager in the depression, her farmer father moved from Alabama to Texas and the new family left little or no room for her in his life. This was a time of poverty and desperation that most of us can't begin to understand.  Bertha Lee was another mouth to feed and she had to go!

She came to Muskogee to live with an UNCLE BUD. Uncle Bud was a man who lived by his wits and that helped during this  dust bowl time.  Farmers like her daddy could not support  large families. This was a time before welfare and other social programs, so Bertha Lee was put on a bus with a suitcase of clothes and  her only other possession, a small bull dog. Half way to Oklahoma when the bus changed drivers, the new driver refused to allow the teenager to keep the dog. It was put off the bus and turned loose to take car of itself.  

Bertha Lee was in the same boat. She was on her on as well with an Uncle she had never seen in a place called Muskogee, a depression infested town in the 30s. Some how she survived with her sanity and later she met Virgil Lee Pippin in church.  The Church was her life.  Poverty was her plague; loneliness surrounded her; but with the help of GOD and Calvary Baptist Church; she endured. She learned to have a full life with GOD's blessings.

We were never rich growing up. My mother gave up many sacrifices for us kids. Sacrifices that you would not believe; going without, so her children could  look good and feel good. She gave us everything including a sense of justice and fair play and, oh, yes; the GOLDEN RULE.  Everyone knew my MOM as a sweet, kind person.  The TV news reporter on TV tonight said it all, " She was the kindest woman in the neighborhood." Yet, she died by a murder that was motivated by  rage.  $300. 00 was still in my Mother's purse and this evening that $300.00 is in an evidence locker at the Police Station. So it was not a money killing; it was a rage killing.  

Why would the merchants of EVIL stop by my Mother's door this morning? No one hated my Mother, but these kids did.  It is one of those things that we will probably never understand, her death; like the way she came into this world will always be a mystery! Why did her Mother have to give up her life so Bertha Lee could live?  The why's will never go away.  As the science fiction writer said many decades ago, " it is beyond human kin."

The life and times of Bertha Lee Ellison Pippin would have been unbearable except for her religion.  Her deeds and her thoughts were pure! Why would a GOOD woman be killed by the hands of EVIL? Teenagers killing an old woman,,,,   RAGE...   we all have it now!