By Joanne Hill

Richard Hauser is on a mission to ensure a publication about a former student’s life and death is among those included in the library at Hardin Reynolds Memorial School.

The book, “Co-Missioned – The Story of Two People Who Went,” recounts the life of Cecil and Betty Byrd.

Cecil Byrd was among those to graduate from the school.

According to his wife, Betty, who wrote the book, her husband was the eldest of five children.

Byrd did not have an easy life growing up in a rural coalmining town in West Virginia, and often was responsible for the care of his siblings while their parents worked.

Byrd’s parents moved to Spencer from West Virginia to escape the downward spiral of a coalmining life style. His father got a job in a saw mill and his mother worked as a nursing assistant in a local hospital.

When Byrd was 14, his mother was killed in a car accident while transporting him and his siblings to school. He blamed himself for the accident, and many think that is why he began participating in criminal activities. Stealing money from the U.S. mail was one of his first crimes.

As a young teenager he was incarcerated in a reformatory for boys in Washington, D.C.
He later entered Hardin Reynolds School in Critz as a junior.

Hauser, a basketball coach at the school, did not know of Byrd’s past, that he was on probation or that he had been involved in crimes that led his placement in the reformatory. But he immediately saw Byrd’s potential as a star basketball player for the school team and recruited him to play on the team.

He recalled that Byrd was an athletic, good looking kid who would have been described as a “cool dude.”

With the nickname, ‘Cecil Baby,’ and selected the “most talented” in the senior superlative section of the school year book, “The Reynolds,” Byrd’s life appeared to be going well.
Byrd played one year on the team, but did not get to play during his senior year. Although an outstanding athlete, Hauser said he kicked Byrd off the team catching him smoking.
Fortunately for Byrd, a young Baptist minister named Bruce Rockwell, who also lived in Spencer, allowed Byrd to live with him and his family. Rockwell agreed to supervise Byrd, and that enabled Byrd to continue his education.

Under the tutelage of the minister who took him in, the teachers at Hardin Reynolds and Hauser, Byrd graduated in 1963, albeit he was two years older than his classmates at the time.

After graduation, Byrd decided to try his luck in California, with aspirations of becoming a movie star. But he was unsuccessful in that pursuit and opted to enroll in college classes. Byrd also was hired as a Montessori pre-school teacher.

Even still, according to his wife’s account, Byrd partied at night and continued his habits of smoking and drinking.

Eventually, he realized that life was not the kind of life he wanted. By then, Byrd was convinced that he must change and pursue a new life in Christ.

He returned to Spencer, where Vernon Eaton — then pastor of Morgan Ford Christian Church in Ridgeway, recognized his Christian calling and immediately helped Byrd enter Johnson Bible College.

Byrd and met his future wife there, and were instantly attracted to each other. The two were married before they completed college, and both were drawn to mission work.
Byrd often worked for churches on weekends as a minister while he and his wife completed their educational courses. They lived in a small room on campus and Betty Byrd also worked to help support them. She soon became pregnant.

After he received his degree in Bible in 1972, Byrd began serving as a pastor. He and his wife strongly felt the call to be missionaries. Many of the churches they attended and served supported them emotionally and financially, which in turn made their mission journeys possible.

They attended linguistics schools in Oklahoma and Texas before they received their assignments as missionaries to Africa. There, they lived and served in Christian missions for more than 20 years.

The two planted 16 churches in Lambia and were meeting many of the needs of the people in the community where they lived.

Byrd’s his life tragically ended on January 20, 2000 when marauders entered his family’s compound in Maputo, Mozambique, Africa. Byrd was shot to death in the incident.

Two of the five children he and Betty Byrd had parented were with them at the time of the attack. Although their son, 17, was taken hostage to assist the intruders in a safe exit from the compound, he, his mother and siblings were otherwise unharmed. A security guard at the compound did not fare as well. He was shot four times as the intruders entered the compound.

Soon after Byrd’s death, the family returned to the U.S.

Betty Byrd now works with Team Expansion International Services Office. All of the Byrd’s children are grown, with lives and children of their own.

From a life of ordinary beginnings and often facing difficult challenges, Byrd and his family overcame these challenges and moved forward, seeking and serving a God to whom they always looked for guidance.

Although Byrd lived only a short time in this part of Virginia, he touched many lives and perished while pursing his desire to glorify God by always serving others.
Hauser said he hopes that Byrd will be remembered, and his story viewed as an inspiration to many.

More information can be found online at bbyrd@teamexpansion.org.
Much of the information for this article was found in Betty Byrd’s book.

(Hill is a retired visiting school teacher and frequent contributor.)

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Known as ‘Cecil Baby,’ Cecil Byrd was selected the “most talented” by fellow students.