F.F. Bosworth: A Profile in Divine Healing Ministry

REFLEKS 4-2 2005 F.F. Bosworth: A Profile in Divine Healing Roscoe Barnes III, M.A.R., B.S., is a well-known author, copywriter, journalist and ghostwriter Fred Francis Bosworth (1877-1958) was a Pentecostal pioneer, famous healing evangelist, musician and author who took the United States and Canada by storm in the 1920s and 1930s. With his brother, Burton B. Bosworth, often working with him, he reportedly led more than a million people to Christ through his min-istry.1 He was considered by scholars and ministers alike to be one of the most successful healing evangelists of the 20th century. He received more than 225,000 written testimonies of healing and his book, Christ the Healer, is a clas-sic that has been in print since 1924.2 Though he spent most of his life as a member of the Christian & Missionary Alli-ance, he was well respected among Pentecostals and holiness groups. In fact, F.F. Bosworth was the preacher who brought Pentecost – and the first Assemblies of God church -- to Dallas, Texas. The church he founded, Dallas First Assembly of God Church, is thriving to this day.3 The impact of Bosworth’s teachings continues to be felt in all parts of the world. Many of today’s mega Charismatic/Pentecostal churches and other ministries, including those of T. L. Osborn, Kenneth Copeland, Fred Price, Benny Hinn and the late Kenneth E. Hagin, have been greatly influenced by his work. Osborn, one of the most successful missionary evangelists of the 20th century, has said: “Old F.F. Bosworth used to share a lot secrets with us.”4 Vast numbers of Word of 1 Gordon P. Gardiner, Out of Zion Into All the World (Shippensburg, PA: Companion Press, 1990), 7. 2 F.F. Bosworth, Christ the Healer, 9th Edition (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Fleming H. Revell, 2002), 16. 3 Carrie Frances Wagliardo Loftis, ed., First Assembly of God Dallas: A History of First Assembly of God - Dallas, Texas, 1912-1992 (Dallas, TX: First Assembly of God, 1992), 7-10. 4 David Edwin Harrell Jr., All Things are Possible: The Healing and Charismatic Revi-vals in Modern America (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1975), 15. 71 REFLEKS 4-2 2005 72 Faith churches read Bosworth’s teachings with great excitement. His book is a required text at Rhema Bible Training Center in Tulsa, Okla.5 Prominent leaders have often showered Bosworth with praise because of his mes-sage, his ministry and the surrendered, faith-filled life that he led. Gordon Lind-say of Christ For The Nations worked with Bosworth during the preacher’s sen-ior years. He described him as being a real gentleman and having a “sweet and godly spirit.”6 Bosworth, he wrote, was “one of the nation’s greatest authorities on the ministry of Divine Healing.”7 T.L. Osborn agrees. “He has conducted some of the largest and most successful healing campaigns in America’s history,” he said.8 William Branham, whose ministry played a pivotal role in the life of Osborn, said that nobody knew more about Divine Healing than Bosworth.9 To church leaders in South Africa, Bosworth was an “Apostle of faith,” and “a 20th century pioneer of the ministry of the miraculous.”10 Said one writer: “Again and again, under his ministry, we saw deaf spirits cast out and eardrums recreated. No case of sickness daunted the enthusiastic faith of this veteran war-rior. He labored unceasingly and we certainly learned to love him.”11 Observing through the eyes of scholarship, P.G. Chappell stated that Bosworth was perhaps the most successful healing Pentecostal evangelist to come out of Zion, Ill.12 5 Brian Parkman, Rhema graduate, in an email to Roscoe Barnes III, Sept. 25, 2004. 6 Gordon Lindsay, God’s 20th Century Barnabas (Dallas, TX: Christ For the Nations Inc., 1982), 151. 7 Gordon Lindsay, “Conversations with Evangelist F.F. Bosworth,” The Voice of Hea-ling, April 1948, 4. Voice of God Recording, Jeffersonville, IN. 8 T.L.Osborn, Healing the Sick and Casting Out Devils (Tulsa, OK: Evangelist T.L. Os-born, 1950), 83. 99 William Branham, “...Old Doctor F.F. Bosworth. I believe he knows more about Scrip-tural basis of Divine Healing than any man I know of in my life,” Faith Charlotte, N.C., 56-0427-14, quoted in “Divine Healing,” [article on-line]; available from http://www.prisonministries.net/Web%20pages/divine_healing.htm. 10 Julius Stadsklev, William Branham: A Prophet Visits South Africa (Jeffersonville, IN: William Branham Evangelistic Association, 1952), 130, 136. 11 Stadsklev, 130 12 P.G. Chappell, “Healing Movements,” in Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements, ed. Stanley M. Burgess, Gary B. McGee and Patrick H. Alexander (Grand Rapids, MI: Regency Reference Library, 1988), 368. REFLEKS 4-2 2005 73 His media coverage At the peak of his ministry, a time when his meetings shattered attendance re-cords and made history in many cities, both the secular and religious media took notice. Frequently, they featured reports about the throngs of people who came for healing and spiritual help. Over and over they published reports about mar-velous healings and miracles. They also covered Bosworth’s debates on the topic of Divine Healing. “Years ago as a boy [I remember] that news of the great Bos-worth healing campaigns reached the daily newspapers even in the far west,” recalled Gordon Lindsay in The Voice of Healing. “In those days enormous crowds gathered to hear the Bosworth party.”13 Similar comments were made by Oral Roberts.14 David J. du Plessis, who was known as “Mr. Pentecost,” once reported on the extraordinary meeting that Bosworth held in 1928 in the Chicago Gospel Taber-nacle. “Fred Bosworth received a lot of publicity in the Chicago Daily News and other metropolitan newspapers when a large number of students who were at-tending a school for the deaf were miraculously healed, their healings causing the school to close.”15 Describing him as a “well-known evangelist” along with his brother, The Alli-ance Life reported “there were many unusual instances of divine healing” in the Bosworth meetings.16 In Durban, South Africa, when Bosworth was 75, a local paper gave this dramatic story: 13 Lindsay, “Rev. and Mrs. F.F. Bosworth Work With Branham Party,” Voice of Healing, May 1948, 1. Voice of God Recording, Jeffersonville, IN; Flower Pentecostal Research Center, Springfield, MO. 14 Oral Roberts, “F.F. Bosworth Rejoices Over Roberts’ Meeting In Miami, Florida,” Hea-ling Waters, February 1949, 4. 15 David J. du Plesis, “News Briefs – A Faithful Pioneer Passes,” World-Wide Revival, April 1958. 16 Alliance Life, 23 January 1958, 15. REFLEKS 4-2 2005 74 Mr. E.C. Dennis, 45, of 365a Flower Road, Clairwood, stood on the platform at Greyville, blocking his left ear. He had not heard with his right ear since he was seven. Another Evangelist, the Rev. F.F. Bosworth, whispered into his right ear, and Mr. Dennis repeated combinations of numbers over a microphone. The crowd, mostly Natives and Indians, cheered as they heard him say: “I am healed.”17 That particular episode was not uncommon in Bosworth’s meetings. Between 1907 and 1958, he carefully documented thousands of healing testimonies. They poured into his office from people of all ages and with all types of sicknesses and diseases. Not infrequently medical professionals provided written verification of the healing claims. His work as a pioneer For most of his 81 years, Bosworth dared to do the impossible. He bucked trends and sometimes shattered the status quo. Like the Apostle Paul, he was all things to all people no matter where he ministered. Bosworth was a frontier evangelist who helped to spread the Pentecostal message to such places as Texas and Indiana, among other areas. His love for all people compelled him to cross racial lines and preach the Gospel without compromise to African Americans and people of other races and cultures. Dubbed the “Dean of the Divine Healing Ministry,”18 Bosworth was a fearless debater and relentless crusader for the healing message. Without hesitation, he took on challenges, an-swered critics, published rebuttals and went the extra mile to defend the doctrine of “Healing in the Atonement.”19 He also took on Classical Pentecostals on the issue of “tongues” as the initial evidence of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit.20 In his youth and in his senior years, he answered calls to articulate what he believed and he did it graciously and in love. 17 “Cripples Rise From Wheelchairs And Walk,” The Natal Mercury, Durban, 23 Novem-ber 1951, in William Branham: A Prophet Visits South Africa, Julius Stadsklev, (Jeffer-sonville, IN: William Branham Evangelistic Association, 1952), 125. 18 Stadsklev, 70, 82. 19 Gordon Lindsay with William Branham, William Branham: A Man Sent from God (Jef-fersonville, IN: William Branham Evangelistic Association, 1950), 149-156; Louis Hof-ferbert, “Baptist Cleric to Challenge ‘Miracle Man,’ The Houston Press, 24 January 1950, Flower Pentecostal Research Center, Springfield, MO. 20 F.F. Bosworth’s letter of resignation, 24 July 1918, Dallas, TX, Flower Pentecostal Research Center, Springfield, MO; Eunice M. Perkins, Joybringer Bosworth: His Life Story (Dayton, OH: John J. Scruby, Distributor, 1921), 53-89. REFLEKS 4-2 2005 75 Bosworth was also a trailblazer in his respect and recognition for women in the ministry. His journey in life included women on all fronts. For instance, a woman was used of God to point him to salvation as a teenager.21 When he was dying of TB, a woman was used of God to pray for his healing. When he held revival meetings, he invited women ministers to participate.22 He also relied on women for his work in church planting, as well as his great city-wide healing cam-paigns.23 His wife, Florence, was a licensed evangelist. Despite his many achievements, however, Bosworth was only a man. A humble man who never claimed any special talent or gifts of healing.24 He knew failure. He knew loss and pain. But through it all, he learned to trust in Jesus. He discov-ered the beauty of God’s grace and the power of God’s Spirit. Because of this, he was able to faithfully spend a life time preaching, teaching, writing, counseling, mentoring and telling others about Jesus Christ, the Healer. His childhood and discovery of music Bosworth was born on Jan. 17, 1877 on a farm near Utica, Neb., to Burton and Amelia Bosworth. His father was a veteran of the Civil War, where he served in 21 Perkins, 24, 29; F.F. Bosworth, Bosworth’s Life Story: The Life Story of Evangelist F.F. Bosworth, as Told by Himself in the Alliance Tabernacle, Toronto (Toronto, Ont.: Alliance Book Room, no date), 3. Flower Pentecostal Research Center, Springfield, MO. 22 Perkins, 28; Bosworth, 6; Robert V. Bosworth, “The Ultimate Triumph,” in Christ the Healer, F.F. Bosworth (Grand Rapids, MI: Fleming H. Revell, 2002) 243, 244. 23 Maria Woodworth-Etter, A Diary of Signs and Wonders: A Classic (Tulsa, OK: Harri-son House, 1916), 154, 159-175; Wayne E. Warner, The Woman Evangelist: The Life and Times of Charismatic Evangelist Maria B. Woodworth-Etter (Metuchen, NJ: The Scarec-row Press Inc., 1986), 164-167, 185-191, Flower Pentecostal Research Center, Spring-field, MO; F.F. Bosworth, “Confirming the Word by Signs Following,” The Latter Rain Evangel, December 1908, reprint in Bread of Life, June 1980, 7, 8; C.M. Robeck Jr., “Sis-son, Elizabeth,” Burgess, McGee and Alexander, 788, 789; Carrie Frances Wagliardo Loftis, ed., First Assembly of God Dallas: A History of First Assembly of God - Dallas, Texas, 1912-1992 (Dallas, TX: First Assembly of God, 1992), 7-10. Mattie E. Perry, Christ and Answered Prayer: Autobiography of Mattie E. Perry, 3rd Edition (Cincinnati, OH: published by the author, 1939), 230, 237. 24 Voice, “Rev. F.F. Bosworth Speaks,” May 1948, 5. Flower Pentecostal Research Cen-ter, Springfield, MO. REFLEKS 4-2 2005 76 unit C, 75th Infantry of the Union Army.25 As a child, Bosworth attended a reun-ion of Civil War veterans with his father in Keaney, Neb., and fell in love with the music he heard the brass bands playing. He spent a week listening to the bands and developed a special interest in the cornet. A short time after this ex-perience, he met a man who offered to sell a cornet. Bosworth, showing his mar-keting prowess at an early age, offered the man a cow and a calf for the cornet and closed the deal. The man gave him a few lessons along with an instruction book and Bosworth went away happy.26 His interest in music would follow him the rest of his life. His conversion and miraculous healing At the age of 16, he took on a job that required traveling all over Nebraska. While in Omaha, he visited a friend, an older woman by the name of Maude Green. She invited him to revival meetings held at the First Methodist Church and urged him to go forward to trust Christ as his Savior. Bosworth followed her advice and became born again. He eventually resigned from his job because of the questionable way in which he’d done business. This was followed by a series of jobs that included work as an engineer in a windmill factory and later a clerk in a grocery store. He also became a cook in a restaurant and later worked in a meat market.27 Around 1891, after his family had moved to University Place, Neb., Bosworth became ill while helping a doctor who was treating a man for a gunshot wound. Bosworth’s illness became severe and resulted in painful coughing that would not stop. It was later diagnosed as TB. At this time he was still living in Nebraska, but his parents had moved to Fitzgerald, Ga. Convinced he would die of TB, he decided to take a train to Georgia and say farewell to his family.28 In Fitzgerald, he visited a Methodist church where Evangelist Mattie Perry was holding meetings. When Perry learned of Bosworth’s condition, she told him that it was not God’s will for him to die at such an early age. She then prayed for him and he was healed. Many years later, in November 1920 in Pittsburgh, Pa., Perry 25 Web site: http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ne/county/holt/1893/illb2.html 26 Perkins, 15-20. 27 Ibid. 24, 25; Bosworth, Bosworth’s Life Story, 2, 3. 28 Perkins, 27, 30. REFLEKS 4-2 2005 77 would postpone one of her own meetings so she could volunteer her help to Bosworth.29 His marriage and move to Zion During his time in Fitzgerald, Bosworth worked as a barber, city clerk and post-master. In fact, he ran for re-election as city clerk but was defeated in 1900.30 Even so, his knack for selling and campaigning would later serve him well as a promoter of evangelistic healing campaigns. At the age of 23, he met an 18-year-old girl, Estella Hyde, the daughter of a Chicago pioneer family. They married on November 8, 1900 and celebrated their honeymoon in Savannah, Ga.31 At some point during the early 1900s, the Bosworth family read The Leaves of Healing by Alexander Dowie of Zion City, Ill., who had created a Christian community just outside of Chicago. The Bosworths felt inspired to leave Georgia and move to the new town. Almost immediately after their arrival, Dowie hired Bosworth as a band leader. In 1903, the band became so popular it drew capacity crowds at 10 successive concerts in Madison Square Garden, New York.32 His baptism in the Holy Spirit On Sept. 20, 1906, Pentecostal pioneer Charles Parham, visited Zion to pray and preach about the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Meetings were held at various places there, including the home of Bosworth.33 Meanwhile, Bosworth developed an intense hunger for more of God. He recalled: 29 Robert V. Bosworth, “The Ultimate Triumph”, Christ the Healer, 243, 244; Perry, 230. 30 The Fitzgerald Enterprise, Fitzgerald, Ga., issues: Nov. 7, 1900, 3; and Dec. 19, 1900, 1. 31 Ibid., Nov. 10, 1900 issue, 4; Nov. 14, 1900 issue, 6. 32 Perkins, 35-38; Chicago Daily News, January 1958, obituary section. 33 Gardiner, x, xi, 5. REFLEKS 4-2 2005 78 I knew the Lord would not baptize me with the Holy Ghost until I was ready. These words kept ringing in my ears, ‘Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.’ Then I promised the Lord I would obey Him if I starved to death. I said I would go out and do some personal work for four or five days before asking to be baptized with the Holy Ghost to show that I meant it. I went to my musical friends and did personal work among them.34 On Oct. 18, he attended a small meeting where he sat and listened as Sister Jessie Brown taught about praising God in faith for what “we believed we were to re-ceive,” when the Spirit fell on him. He suddenly jumped out of his seat and burst out in tongues and sat down.35 Once again a woman had been used of God to play an important role in Bosworth’s life. Bosworth immediately exhibited a new boldness for sharing the gospel and he soon felt called to the ministry. Before his baptism in the Spirit, he was fond of saying he was afraid that God would call him to preach. After his baptism, he said he was afraid God would not call him to preach.36 By 1907 and 1908, Bos-worth traveled as an evangelist. He reported great revival meetings in Indiana where balls of fire literally appeared before people who received the baptism in the Spirit.37 His revival meetings in Dallas In 1909 Bosworth moved to Dallas, Texas, with the goal of planting a church in the power of the Spirit. While there he experienced numerous trials that required daily prayers for food. In August 1911, he suffered a brutal beating for preaching to a group of African Americans in Hearne, Texas.38 Shortly after this persecu-tion, he saw a tremendous revival in his Dallas church. In the spring of 1912, Bosworth’s church became the site of one of the biggest revivals to occur in Texas. Almost daily, for 10 years, the church held prayer meetings and evangelistic services that resulted in thousands of people being 34 Bosworth, Bosworth’s Life Story, 7. 35 Gardiner, 5-7, 334. 36 Bosworth, Bosworth’s Life Story, 7, 8. 37 Gardiner, 12, 13; Bosworth, “Confirming the Word by Signs Following,” The Latter Rain Evangel, December 1908; The Bread of Life, June 1980. 38 Bosworth, Bosworth’s Life Story, 12, 13; Bosworth’s letter to his mother and family, August 21, 1911, Dallas, Texas. Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center, Springfield, Mo. REFLEKS 4-2 2005 79 miraculously healed, saved and filled with the Spirit.39 For six months in July in 1912, Maria Woodworth-Etter conducted services that were nothing short of his-toric. Up to 5,000 people attended the meetings and even more on Sundays. Bosworth, a tireless promoter of the services, flooded the media with press re-leases.40 His resignation from the Assemblies of God Near the end of the decade, after nearly 10 years of revival meetings, Bosworth was accused of heresy. The accusation was launched by a fellow Pentecostal in the Dallas area. A letter about the accusation was sent to Bosworth’s church and triggered concern by the members. Bosworth contemplated what was happening and made a serious study of Scripture which culminated in his public stand against tongues as the initial evidence of the baptism in the Holy Spirit. He be-lieved that tongues, while good, was only one of the signs of a person being bap-tized in the Spirit.41 Bosworth resigned from the church he had founded, along with his assistant min-ister, Rev. Elias G. Birdsall, and joined the Christian & Missionary Alliance. Many of the congregation went with them as they began planting another church in the Dallas area.42 On July 24, 1918, Bosworth turned in his ordination papers.43 Later that year he was invited to present his views on evidential tongues to the Assemblies of God General Council meeting of 1918. He sat on a panel to discuss the issue and he also presented a resolution, much like Luther posting his 95 Theses. Despite his passionate presentation, however, the Assemblies of God struck down Bos-worth’s views and insisted that anyone holding credentials with the denomination must believe and teach that tongues is the initial evidence of the Spirit baptism.44 Against the backdrop of one of the greatest revivals in that area, plus the end of World War I, Bosworth lost the love of his life. His wife, Estella, contracted in- 39 Bosworth, letter to his brother, B.B. Bosworth, September 1912, Dallas, Texas. 40 Woodworth-Etter, 155, 159-175. 41 Lester Sumrall, Pioneers of Faith (Tulsa, Oklahoma: Harrison House, 1995) 42, 43. 42 Loftis, 7-10. 43 Bosworth’s Letter of Resignation, Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center, Springfield, Mo. 44 Sumrall, 43. REFLEKS 4-2 2005 80 fluenza and TB and died. A grand funeral was held at which many people came to Christ.45 His growing outreach The 1920s would prove to be a time of enormous growth for Bosworth’s minis-try. It started with a meeting he held in 1920 at a church in Lima, Ohio, where the pastor asked him to preach on divine healing. Initially, Bosworth had doubts as the meeting started slow and everything seemed discouraging. But Bosworth prayed. I said to the Lord, “But suppose I preach healing and the people don’t get healed?” And the Lord said, “If people didn’t get saved you wouldn’t stop preaching the Gospel.” I studied the question and prayed about it, and at last I saw that it was God’s will to heal as well as to save people.46 Miracles of healing started happening from the first night and the meetings be-came the start of a “series of wonderful revivals.”47 In 1921 Bosworth held a suc-cessful campaign in Detroit, Mich., where P.C. Nelson was inspired to begin his own healing ministry. A year later, he met Florence Valentine, a post-graduate student at Nyack Bible School in New York, and they married in October 1922.48 Perhaps one of the most significant moments, and indeed a major milestone, was undoubtedly his 1924 meeting in Ottawa, Canada. There he had the largest crowd ever to gather under one roof in that region. During the seven weeks in which the meeting was held, about 6,000 people sought healing and about 12,000 professed faith in Christ.49 That same year, Bosworth compiled a few of his sermons and published them as Christ the Healer. In 1927, he launched Exploits of Faith magazine and promoted a revised edition of his biography. Before the decade was over, Bosworth was enjoying the growing success of the National Radio Revival broadcast. 45 Bosworth, letter to his daughter, Vivien B. Schnepmueller, Nov. 20, 1919, Dallas, Texas; “Sister Bosworth with the Lord” and “Sister Bosworth’s Funeral,” The Pentecostal Evangel, Nov. 29, 1919, 10. Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center, Springfield, Mo.; Per-kins, 106-108. 46 Bosworth, Bosworth’s Life Story, 11; Perkins, 114-120. 47 Ibid. 48 Perkins, Fred Francis Bosworth: His Life Story (The Joybringer) 2nd Edition, (River Forest, Ill.: F.F. Bosworth, 1927), 189-190. 49 Du Plessis, 10; Lindsay, The Voice of Healing, May 1948, 1. REFLEKS 4-2 2005 81 His work as mentor and advisor to later evangelists In 1947, Bosworth turned 70 and was feeling his ministry was over.50 But a year later he met William Branham and began a new phase in his life. Branham had just burst onto the scene with a remarkable gift of healing. Thanks to the man-agement of Gordon Lindsay, he would soon become known as the undisputed leader of the post-World War II revival.51 At the invitation of Branham and Lind-say, Bosworth joined the Branham Party as a mentor and advisor who would also teach and pray for the sick at the Branham meetings. Before long, Bosworth found himself mentoring T.L. Osborn and other young evangelists. He also was an encouragement to Oral Roberts.52 During the latter part of 1950, Bosworth traveled to South Africa where he held meetings with Branham and Ern Baxter.53 This experience would have a pro-found impact on Bosworth’s ministry and his views on the ministry of divine healing. First, he discovered that people outside the United States had a hunger for God that was unlike anything he had ever witnessed. Second, he found that God would provide miraculous healings at the start of his meetings as a demon-stration of His power in response to simple faith. Third, he learned that mass healings will frequently – and more easily -- occur in response to mass faith. Fourth, he discovered that casting out demons happens automatically, and with-out hours of prayer, in a mass audience possessing mass faith.54 Bosworth was so moved by what he witnessed in South Africa that he devoted the rest of his life to ministry overseas. He often wept as he talked about the needs of the masses of people who had never heard the full gospel message. 50 Bosworth, Robert V., 245; Sumrall, 44. 51 Harrell, 35, 36, 162; Don Stewart, Only Believe (Shippensburg, Pa.: Destiny Image, 1999), 35, 36, 42-45; Freda Lindsay, My Diary Secrets (Dallas, Texas: Christ For the Na-tions Inc., 1979), 87. 52 Gordon Lindsay, God’s 20th Century Barnabas (Dallas, Texas: Christ For the Nations Inc., 1982), 150, 151; Lindsay, A Man Sent From God, 109, 110; Roberts, Healing Wa-ters, 4. 53 Stadsklev, 117-126; Robert V. Bosworth, 245. 54 F.F. Bosworth, “Mass Faith, Mass Healings,” “Christian Confession,” and “Redemptive Blessings,” preached in July 1954 in Chicago, recordings, Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center, Springfield, Mo. REFLEKS 4-2 2005 Though in his later 70s, he began to travel to other parts of Africa, Germany and Japan, among other places. He sometimes taught two to four times a day. His death In 1958, after five decades of ministry, Bosworth finished his last meeting in Japan. He returned to his home in Miami, Fla., and announced that God had shown him that he had finished his course and would soon be called home. Now 81 years of age, he retired to his bed. His son, R.V. Bosworth, wrote that his fa-ther had prayed to honor God by dying without sickness: About three weeks after he took to his bed, we were around the bed talking, laughing, singing. Suddenly Dad looked up; he never saw us again. He saw what was invisible to us He began to greet people and hug people – he was enraptured. Every once in a while he would break off and look around saying, “Oh, it is so beautiful.”55 This he did for a number of hours, his son wrote, adding that he then smiled and placed his head back and slept. He suddenly stopped breathing and passed into the next life without struggle. This all happened on Thursday, Jan. 23, 1958. Three weeks later on Feb. 17, 1958, Bosworth’s brother, B.B. Bosworth, died in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. 55 Bosworth, Robert V., 246, 247. 82