We Remember...
by Sarah Sutton
Today is the 28th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing. Council Road member, Mickey Maroney, perished in the attack on the federal building where he worked as a Secret Service agent.
If you're new to Council Road, you may not know that Maroney Hall on the south part of our campus, is named in memory of Mickey.
I wrote the following post about Mickey several years ago and thought it would be appropriate to run today:
Every year on this day, my thoughts turn toward my friend Mickey Maroney, whose amazing life was taken too soon. Actually, he enters my thoughts many times a year because he was just larger than life like that. The Saturday before the bombing, I was at Home Depot trying to decide on a tree to purchase. A voice behind me offered help. When I turned around, it was Mickey standing there with a huge smile on his face. I said, "Well yes," laughing, "I can’t decide on which tree to plant." He said, “Oh you need the red bud—it’s Oklahoma’s state tree.” Decision made. How could I possibly imagine the next weekend that I would be planting it in his memory...
When Mickey first began working in the Secret Service, he was on the security detail for Lady Bird Johnson. She always wanted him to pull over so they could grab a hamburger. She never had any money, so he always paid. When her husband's term as President ended, she gave Mickey a check for $5, which he never cashed.
Years before Mickey passed, he contracted a serious illness and prayed to God that if He saved his life, he would wholly serve Him and turn some things around. He did, and so did Mickey. Mickey began to teach Sunday School to our college-aged young men. One Sunday, he brought a handful of $100 bills and handed them out to his class. He was working in the counterfeit division at the time and told the guys whoever could figure out which of the bills was real could keep it. No one did. He used that lesson to ask them who they were during the week—counterfeit or real.
Mickey loved to take care of people. His office in the federal building was across the street from mom, who worked in Senator Boren’s office in the Journal Record Building. This was her first job, and she was nervous because not everyone who came to see the senator with a complaint was pleasant. Mickey came over one day and installed several wires under her desk, telling her if she ever encountered trouble to just push the button under the desk drawer, and he would be over in a flash (as he patted the gun in his jacket.)
Several years ago, I contacted Mickey’s daughter, Alice Maroney Denison, to let her know Council Road church was dedicating a new room to Mickey because he had impacted so many young lives in his teaching years here. We got to sharing Mickey stories, and I told her about the secret button he had installed for mom. She laughed and said Mickey knew absolutely nothing about electronics, let alone how to install something that sophisticated. She was sure he had just strung some fake wires just to make mom feel better! Ha ha! Well...it worked. And God did take care of mom. Two months before the bombing, Senator Boren left the senate, and her job ended in that building that was destroyed in the bombing
Mickey, I hope you can see how many people will never get over losing you. You were one of a kind. And we’re all better for having known you. Until we meet again...
Author Bio
Sarah has worked at Council Road in a variety of ministries since 1984. She currently serves as the senior pastor’s assistant and staff editor. She has played flute in the CRBC orchestra since 1983 and met her husband, Dave, while serving in the music ministry together. She enjoys traveling to wherever Dave is photographing a beautiful landscape.