The Father Whose Life Story Inspired the Son Who Wrote "Braveheart"

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Call 1-888-842-6328 for details about credit costs. Learn more at navyfederal.org. This is Lee Habib and this is Our American Stories, the show where America is the star and the American people. Randall Wallace is the writer, director of films such as Braveheart, We Were Soldiers, Heaven is for Real, and a family favorite, Secretariat.

Movies rooted in courage, sacrifice, and faith. These traits which embodied Randall's heart were exemplified throughout his life. Here's Randall to tell the story of his father. My father was the greatest man I ever knew and he had a remarkable childhood. His father died of typhoid fever eight months before my father was born. So I suspect my grandmother didn't know she was pregnant when she became a widow, but my father was not without a father figure. His mother had a lot of sorrow and brokenness in her life. She started a one-room schoolhouse in Lizard Lick, Tennessee. That was where they were from.

So I love to share. The men in my father's family are Alton, Elton, Dalton, Lyman, Gleeman, Herman, Thurman, and Clyde. Thurman's my father and his grandpa, the father of all those guys, was Jake Rhodes. My father told me that once his grandfather leaned down to him face to face and said, I want you to understand something Thurman.

I'm not a wealthy man, but you can walk into town and buy anything there by telling them you're my grandson because they know I'll keep my word. Those stories were just profound for me. My father had no help. His mother really had her hands full when he was in school. Of course, they had corporal punishment in Lizard Lick, Tennessee, and the Depression.

When my grandmother was going to discipline a student, meaning spank, she would spank my father first so no one could say that she was playing favorites. So he got spanked most every day he was in school. He was incredibly charismatic, and all of his relatives said he always had this glow and he could sell anything.

He went to work full-time when he was 14. And the fascinating thing about that, he sold candy through all of my life. He sold candy through all of my life. What really amazed me about my dad is you hear the stories of the traveling salesman and you have the the concept of manipulating people to sell them things. My father loved people. And when he met anyone, he always found something about them that he found delightful.

He knew the name of the guy that swept the floor in the warehouse, as well as the name of the president of the company. He didn't really want me to be a writer. He knew that I loved doing it, but he felt that if you work hard at being a lawyer or a doctor or certain professions, then you will find some success. But he thought it was too much of a crap shoot to be in a profession in which you might be gifted, you might work really hard, but you couldn't guarantee that you'd have a career. He had a long talk with me advising me to man up and become realistic. He had always wanted me to go to law school.

I realized, well, I can't borrow money from him, but I don't know how to stop and I've got to keep going. And about that time, I wrote Braveheart and there was nobody more proud of me than my dad. I was directing We Were Soldiers and it was the first film that I was shooting on the studio lot. And I thought that would be a great experience for my dad. So I invited him out for the last three days of filming and he came. It was the happiest and most carefree time of his life.

He went around the set, spoke with everybody. And then he went back home and he had a heart attack. And the doctors called wanting permission from my sister and me to turn off the machines that were keeping him alive. As hard as that call was, our father had made that decision easier because he had always said, don't ever keep me alive by artificial means.

So we made the call to turn off the machines. And I drove right to the airport and got on the plane, flew all night long. And then I was flying from Atlanta to Lynchburg when the pilot came on and announced that all air traffic in the country had been ordered to land immediately.

It was 9-11. And I ran right to the car rental counter, got a car and I was on the road when he died. So I didn't make it to his bedside. We had his funeral and I got back to work as exactly as he would want me to. And that first day back, we were doing post-production background voices.

So we had the Vietnamese guys there doing enemy calls and radio transmissions, things like that. And on a break, one of the Vietnamese guys who'd played an enemy soldier came up and said, Mr. Randall, I'm so sorry about your father. And I said, thanks, let's get back to work. Because I didn't want to get emotional.

I was trying not to be raw. He said, I really am so sorry. And I said, thanks, let's get back to work. And he said, no, please listen to me.

I stopped and said, what? And he said, last day on the set, I met your father. And your father said to me, where's your father? And I said, my father died in Vietnam. And your father said to me, then I'll be your father. The fact that that was this fatherless boy who grew up to be a man who would say that in absolute sincerity to a total stranger reminded me that my father would always be with me.

And I am certain I'm going to meet him in heaven. And a terrific job on the production and editing by our own Greg Hengler. And a special thanks to Randall Wallace, who, by the way, has a terrific and inspiring one-man show called The Braveheart of Creativity.

You can go to wallaceentertainment.com to learn more. The story of Randall Wallace's father, the story of so many good fathers across this great country, doing the most heroic work there is, raising kids, here on Our American Stories. This is Lee Habib, host of Our American Stories, the show where America is the star in the American people.

And we do it all from the heart of the South, Oxford, Mississippi. But we truly can't do this show without you. Our shows will always be free to listen to, but they're not free to make. If you love what you hear, consider making a tax-deductible donation to Our American Stories. Go to ouramericanstories.com. Give a little, give a lot.

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