Scottie’s Story

My earliest memories, when I was 3 or 4 years old, are of how my Mama loved my Daddy so much, and we would drive to visit him in jail every Sunday afternoon. When I was little, I didn’t understand why my Mother cried all the way home and why we always left my Daddy where he was. By the time I was in the 7th grade, I did not want my friends to know where I went every Sunday of my life.

When Daddy was in prison in Greenville, South Carolina, Mother would cook his favorite dishes; then we would leave home early Sunday morning to take the meal to him and be there when the gates opened.

One Sunday was better than all the others; we were taking him home and Mama just knew this time everything was going to be different! When we got there and Mother asked to see Daddy, the guard said, “I’m very sorry ma’am, but Mr. Pennell left with his wife just a few minutes ago.”

I spent very little time with my daddy again until I was in my twenties. Up until that point I’d never heard my father say, “I love you.” I was a responsibility that he did not want.

James Fred Pennell’s Father had died when he was just a child. As a thirteen-year-old hanging around the local gas stations, young “Babe” Pennell had seen that bootleggers had money, and money bought women and cars and nice clothes and gave you a name. At that point, his young life took a turn. Scottie’s bootlegger father dragged his little family from town to town, and was in and out of jails and prisons throughout the Southeast during the early years of Scottie’s life. Once for a few months in Knoxville, Tennessee, he had held “a real, honest job”, they had lived in a two-story home, and had their first nice car, and “were a real family for the first time.” Scottie was so proud because when people would ask where her Daddy worked, for once she could say, “At the Oakridge TN plant!” He had a job!

It was during those brief days in Knoxville that two things became pivotal in Scottie’s young life. She walked to Fifth Avenue Baptist Church, during this time, and learned about salvation. Enthusiastically, she invited the white-headed pastor to pray for her Daddy. When the conscientious preacher came to visit, Scottie’s Dad went out the back door. As the pastor put his arm around an embarrassed eight-year-old girl, he assured her that it was O.K., “But you don’t quit praying; you keep the faith. One day he’ll be saved.” When her Daddy got back home, he was irate and threatened to wear her out if she ever did that again. For many years after that night a battle would rage in a child’s heart: the fear of witnessing to her Father versus the hope of the old preacher’s promise.

Of course, the honest family life of Knoxville days was not for “Babe” Pennell. It was back to the old dishonest nomadic pattern, and after that fateful day at the Greenville prison, the marriage broke up. Scottie lost tract of her dad. Upon high school graduation, she tried unsuccessfully to find him and again after she got married. When her first child was born, she tried again. He had a grandchild now; he needed to know that grandchild. He needed to know his own Daughter. Scottie, growing spiritually, also had learned how to lead people to the Lord and wanted to win her Daddy. She found him in an Atlanta penitentiary, this time. He had moved on to the big city, bigger money, bigger crimes, bigger jail.

Once again Pennell was released and moved home to be close to Scottie. The succeeding years would see Scottie patiently praying for her Father, getting reacquainted with him, building their relationship, learning to love him like God wanted her to, and trying desperately to reach him for Christ. Looking back to those days, Scottie sees God working His plan. Her Father had a lot of money, and money meant women and things and fun and power and you didn’t need God. Scottie, suspecting it was drug money questioned her Dad; he promised her his money wasn’t coming from drugs.

When “Babe” had a massive heart attack in Myrtle Beach and wasn’t expected to live, his daughter rushed to his side and the Lord raised him up. Scottie was thrilled! “This time he’ll get saved,” she thought. The next day he was sitting up in his hospital bed placing bets. But God was gradually breaking down and stripping away the things that Pennell clung to. A second heart attack, a stroke, and Scottie heard her Daddy asking for prayer. After two more arrests of “The Drug Kingpin of North and South Carolina” and Scottie’s appearance before a Grand Jury in Parkersburg, West Virginia, her Daddy sat on the sofa after getting home from a revival service! He wept, “I’ve done too much. There’s no way God can forgive me.” Scottie said, “Daddy, it’s not what you’ve done, but what He did on the cross of Calvary.” The next day her 6 foot 2, 62-year old Daddy was dramatically converted to Christ after 30 years of prayer.

James Fred Pennell died in the Federal Penitentiary at Lexington, Kentucky; but for the last two years of his life, a father and daughter walked together in the Lord, and Scottie Barnes finally heard her Daddy say, “I love you.”

Scottie recently brought closure into her own family life. She met for the first time her two half-brothers and half-sister, sons and daughter of the woman who picked up Babe Pennell at prison ahead of Scottie and her mother. “We now have a wonderful relationship that only God could have brought about.”