This Week in Texas Methodist History September 11 Waco District Mourns Lakeview Pastor Vernon White, Dies in Freak Hunting Accident September 1948 What does September mean to you—for most Texans it means the start of football season and the hope of cooler weather as we anticipate the first cool front of the year. To many Texans it also means the start of dove season. The mourning dove is by far the most commonly hunted game bird in Texas and most of the United States. Waterfowl are naturally concentrated on the coast in swamps and lakes, but doves are upland birds and taken in a variety of habitats including grain and sunflower fields, fence lines along pastures, and around stock tanks. Labor Day has been the traditional start of dove season and a ritual of opening day hunts is part of Texas culture. In 1948 D. M. Nolen, a member of Lakeview Congregation in the Waco District invited his pastor, Vernon While (b. 1914) to hunt with him in a field near Hubbard. White was a member of the Central Texas Conference in his fourth year at Lakeview, having previously served Barry. About 5:00 p.m. Nolen announced that he was going back to car and expected Rev. White to follow him. After a few minutes White had not joined him so Nolen became concerned about the possibility of a gun accident and went looking for his hunting companion. He couldn’t find him so he went to a nearby farm house and solicited the aid of two boys who lived there to help him in the search. One of the boys said, “have you looked in the old well?” The old well was really a brick and concrete cistern that had had no cover. The cistern was surrounded by cane and other brush and when the search party arrived at about 5:45, they found the body of Rev. White floating in the cistern. They had to call the Hubbard Fire Department to retrieve the body. Rev. White was buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Waco. He left behind a widow and a five year old daughter.