Weldon E. Mickel born Aug.12,1923 in Centralia, Washington to Glen E. and Mae Cecilia (Brown) Mickel. Weldon had 3 sisters and 1 brother, of which the brother and one sister are still alive. When Weldon was 1 1/2 yrs. old his parents moved to Milwaukee, Oregon. When he was 7, they moved into Portland. He had two sisters, Helen F., born 1915, and Joyce G. born 1918. Helen died in 1998 and Joyce died in 2007. From Portland, his parents moved to Powell Butte, Oregon, and lived there until 1941. He graduated from high school in Redmond, Oregon.
When he was 17 he left home and started preaching. He held evangelistic meetings in Bend, Oregon for 7 weeks; then went to Calif. and held meetings in San Francisco. When he turned 19, he entered Bible School and graduated from L.I.F.E. Bible College in Los Angeles. He was ordained in 1945. He married Evelyn C. Jones in 1944. In 1945 he moved to Oklahoma, where his first child, Weldon ll, was born. Then he embarked into the ministry.
He moved to Calif. where he was pastor in the cities of Orland, Avenal, Crescent City, and Hemet. His daughter, Cheryl D., was born in 1951. In 1957 he accepted a position in Sydney, Australia, as president of the International Church of Australia Foursquare Churches and the dean of the bible college. He and his family left Sydney in 1959 to come back to the states and pastor churches in Oxnard, Santa Maria, El Sereno, Pasadena, Santa Ana, Ontario, Carson, and Hemet.
Weldon's wife Evelyn, died after a prolonged illness in 1987, and Weldon moved in with his daughter and helped in church duties at Pearblossom church. He lived in Mesquite, Nev., with his daughter, Cheryl, her husband Jerry Scharton, and granddaughter until his death Thanksgiving weekend 2009.
Note: [Elizabeth Loofbourrow related the story of when Weldon (known then as "Mickey") and Evelyn were married. Weldon added some corrections.]
Evidently they decided to get married on the spur of the moment and there was a rush of activity in preparation. [Weldon had been up in Oregon doing work for the Lord and decided to stop in San Francisco to see Evelyn, as he was headed down to Bible college in Los Angeles. He and Evelyn decided to get married.] Elizabeth and Naomi did not know how many people to expect, so they gathered up all the ration stamps they could get (war rationing at that time) and went out to get meat, bread and other fixings for sandwiches. They also made lemonade and a wedding cake.
There was a some what frantic search for the minister that was to marry them: Evidently, Rev. McPheeters of Glide Memorial could not find Dwight and Naomi's apartment. This went on for about 2 hours, during which time a crowd of friends from the college and others had gathered for the ceremony. Such a crowd that it created a bit of a problem for the tiny apartment, street parking, and then Mickey added to the commotion by continually coming up and down the 2 flights of stairs to see if the minister had arrived yet. Finally Rev. McPheeters arrived at 9:30 p.m. and the ceremony was conducted, surrounded by friends, fellow students and of course Elizabeth, Dwight, and Naomi (Perry had shipped out with the Navy a few days earlier).
After the ceremony at Dwight and Naomi's apartment on Jones St., many of the guys there didn't know if 'Mickey' had enough dollars for a hotel, so they did a collection. Being so young and obviously excited, several of the guys went with Mickey to arrange for the hotel. Interestingly they were married on Jones St, spent their first night as man & wife in the Jones Hotel, also on Jones St. All appropriate since Evelyn's maiden name is Jones.
The next day (Friday), they took a bus down to Hollister to let Ben and Edna know the new news and spent a couple of days there. (Evelyn had lived with them for her high school years). Ben gave them a wedding gift of some money to get started on their new life, although he and Edna were a bit disappointed that time and schedule had not been allowed for them to attend the wedding. Afterwards, the new Mr. & Mrs. Mickel went to Los Angeles and both enrolled in college there.