Jackson High has expanded west and north, and Allapattah Elementary moved on north off 22nd Ave many years ago, and isn't even considered to be in Allapattah anymore, being north of State Rd. 112.

Pentecostal Evangelist Ethel R. Willits was a controversial figure with an impressive presentation in the thirties and forties, often with a choir, a Hammond organ, grand pianos, a band, a loudspeaker system and staff of assistants.   She put on quite a show.    Many swore by her, and claimed to be healed of illnesses or cured of addictions.  She protested she was not a healer, although the usual coming forward, anointing with oil and throwing down of crutches, etc. took place at her meetings.  And she was undoubtedly right - any cures were the result of faith and confidence she inspired in her listeners.   She toured the country for years.  According to a piece written by Mark J. Price from the Akron Beacon-Journal, Akron, Ohio:

"As Akron's rubber factories blackened the sky, the thick smell of sulfur permeated the air.  Yet, residents got a strong whiff of something else in 1938: the scent of fire and brimstone.  A stranger had come to town, promising to rid the city of the demons that afflicted it.  Many wanted to believe her.  Many did believe her.  Many could not.

The arrival of evangelist Ethel R. Willitts ignited a citywide debate about religion and science, a classic confrontation between believers and skeptics."

And later;

"Akron Councilmen Luther Park, Roy Thorne and Robert Ryder declared Willitts' ministry a racket and said the 15,000-square-foot tabernacle violated zoning laws.  Council President Robert Sanderson, however, was a fan of the evangelist.

"I think she's doing a good job,'' he said.

Everybody's Tabernacle packed in crowds nightly and its services were broadcast live on WJW radio. Many were stunned in January 1939 when Willitts announced she was leaving Akron after 15 weeks.

"God has spoken to me and said that my work is finished here in Akron and to go to Toledo,'' she told worshippers.  She bade farewell to the city, declaring the services here to be "a great success.''  The tabernacle was taken apart and hauled to Toledo.

Over the years, Akron heard fleetingly from the evangelist, but the news was seldom good.  In 1943, a Florida man claimed that Willitts was keeping his 19-year-old daughter against her will.  In 1948, parishioners at a Miami church filed suit, alleging that the evangelist squandered $71,000 in church assets...

It was Akron's last known update on the evangelist. What happened to her after that?  God only knows."

Ethel Willitts also wrote several books on Pentecostal healing and evangelism, now long out of print and probably forgotten.   But many surely remember her revival meetings and the renewal of faith and hope she inspired in her devotees.   And one has to admit that kicking the habit of snuff, even rose snuff, was a good thing!

My father, a minister, was a great fan of revival meetings for renewal of faith, although skeptical about healing and disapproving of rolling in the aisles.  Revivals were very popular in the years before television and the internet, both as entertainment and a way to re-energize and make a new start (as well as a way for traveling evangelists to make their living - or more, and for local pastors to entice more lost sheep back to their flocks).

I learned to read when I was three, had a huge voice and perfect pitch, and my parents took me to many revival meetings to sing, hymnbook in hand because although I can memorize music well, my memory for the words really was lacking something. I was very small for my age, except for the voice, and people would titter and think it was so cute that I was holding a hymn book for show, never imagining I could actually read quite well, and that without it, I wouldn't get through the first verse!   My father, Rev. Paul Williamson, worked for several years for radio evangelist Theodore Epp of Back to the Bible Broadcast, where I also sang in the Saturday children's radio choir, and some years later he worked as a front-runner for the Billy Graham Crusades.

I don't think we ever saw Ethel Willitts, although we met many other traveling evangelists.  I remember one group in particular, a band of people from all over the world that my father invited to our church in Wyoming, New York when I was about nine years old.  Wearing traditional costumes, they testified as to missionary efforts and religious discrimination in their particular country, sang and played instruments.   Click to enlarge picture:

All us children were especially impressed with Native American Herman Beaver, wearing his complete feathered headdress and beaded leather clothing and boots.  So I was the envy of the younger set when I persuaded my parents to let Mr. Beaver stay with us, while the rest performers went solo or in pairs to stay with other parishioners.

Our upstairs bathroom was undoubtedly an add-on at some time, and the only way to it was either up the back stairs and through the attic, or through any two of the three upstairs bedrooms, mine being the logical choice.   Monday morning my mother called up the heat vent that it was time to get up.  Anxious to bid goodbye to our distinguished guest, I tossed on my clothes, threw open the door to the hallway and ran smack into a completely nude Herman Beaver, on his way to the bathroom.  Mr. Beaver mumbled "Excuse me" and turning a naked "tail", trotting back into his bedroom.  This was a shock to me, in our super-modest household.  I slunk quietly into the kitchen, and our guest came in shortly after.   My mother reminded me to go down into the cellar to feed my pet rabbits (it was wintertime) and Mr. Beaver asked if he could go along too.  Mother agreed, to my discomfort.   Downstairs, after admiring my pets, he put an arm around me and whispered in my ear, "I will be in big trouble if you tell anyone.  Please, please promise you won't tell."

I agreed, although actually when I was in my late teens and had an urge to annoy my mother, who at the time was going on and on about all the distinguished guests we'd entertained, I told her about it without naming the person.   She spent many hours trying to figure out who it was!  A couple of years ago, figuring enough water had gone under the bridge to relieve me of my vow, I named the culprit and she was astonished.  She had hoped it was one of several who she had disliked, especially a certain self-important violinist.  I think she was even more surprised when I assured her that I might have been properly traumatized by the incident if only he'd been ugly......