First United Methodist Church of Salinas

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First United Methodist Church of Salinas is a local church in Salinas, CA. Expect music styles such as traditional hymns, contemporary, and gospel choir. You might also find programs like children's ministry, youth group, community service, choir, and adult education. by FaithStreet


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  • Crystal Gayle LeVant DYER
    The Walton family met with the Dyer family at least thru `72, when the Dyer family moved to Mountain View, near Stanford University. Patrick James Walton worked as a student athlete at Ucla in `69/`73, in the Marching Band, Football, and Basketball, Bill in `70/`74 in the Marching Band and Basketball. Patrick was a Steer Roper, having learned from the family of Reba Nell McEntire, as well as Steer Wrestler/BullDogger, and Calf Roper. Jim Dorsey was an award winning trumpet, later alto Sax and Albert fingering Clarinet, player. Bill was about 215 in Helix High School in La Mesa, Cal., 225 in Ucla, 245 in the Nba. I`m a Jewess, by heritage, but I know United Methodist heritage Giles Dyer, and love him.
  • Patrick James "Bruce" Walton
    We were RoMan Catholic, but Dad said we visited the Dyer family in at least `68/`70, maybe summer, holidays, in `68, `69, and summer, at least, in `70. I went to Ucla to play at least football, at least lineman. I participated in steer wrestling, and calf roping, and Salinas had a huge rodeo. Dad said he thought he and mom may have also known Dr. Carl and Jewel Patton thru Will and Diana. Giles was a young man, not a boy. Dr. Patton loved the Dorsey brothers, and Bill and I played trombones, like Tommy Dorsey. The McAnaney father, Donald, was with both the Dorseys, Tom and Jim. I was 6`6/6`7, maybe about 250, Bill was about 6`11/6`12, 235. Anyone who saw us might remember that.
  • Marion Ferrante
    My husband, Richard Ferrante, was very busy as an attorney for the ACLU. So I volunteered for service as one of the councilors for the MYF. I didn`t know my friend, Sandra Haney, and her husband Bob, were seducing the boys, when I sat out dances, and Sandy danced with the boys, Bob with the girls. I guess I was just a mousey little church girl, and incredibly naive. Rev. Dyer was a good man, bravely speaking out against the Viet Nam war. Giles was a quiet boy. He was a good boy, but our church was apparently infested by gay men and teenager molesters, so he apparently felt even more unwelcome than I did.
  • Helen Webb
    I was not at church much. I was nominally married to my husband, Fred Webb, and my daughter, LaRhetta Webb. My husband was an editor at the Salinas Californian newspaper, I was a secretary there. My husband was the homosexual "Fred" who has been alluded to. I knew thru-out our marriage he was gay, but I do not know if he had any sex at all. The father of my daughter was a smaller man, who might have been British King George VI. I met him in a bar, but I am not much of a drinker, I only take a single alcoholic drink, and sip it. So it might be just as well my desire for Giles and LaRhetta to marry was thwarted, since he might have been family of George VI, too. My daughter was physically a bit like John Charles, Giles` older brother, but opposite gender without being reduced in size. She is about 5`6, younger than him, brunette. I am muscular for a woman, a glamazon, pretty, then middle aged, and tall. Kathy Vix, mother of three adorable little girls, was an inch or two taller, a former Miss California winner in both talent and beauty. Mr. Kennedy was named Bob, like, for some reason, most of the gay men in the church were, maybe named after public transvestite Bob Hope. Maybe my providing my daughter contraception scared Giles off her. He was a very mild mannered boy who took his responsibilities very serious, and was not eager to risk taking on the responsibility of paternity. We first arrived in the North High area about `69, when the Carpenters began having hits.
  • Nancy McAnaney.
    I first got to know Giles Dyer when he joined Joel Price in following my brother PatRick home, from the national Merit exam. PatRick joked to him he did not want him to get involved with his baby sister. Giles said that would be a lot tougher than with Joel`s sister, Jill, because he liked me. The summer months passed. PatRick met Giles near the Lucky grocery store he was working in. He said I had wondered where Giles had disappeared. Giles reminded him he had said he wanted him to have nothing to do with him. PatRick invited him to come over. Giles had started out as a very extroverted little boy, but lived in 4 homes before he reached 5 and had painfully learned he wasn`t much wanted at church or school. Wendy and I traded off dates, kisses, with him, but mom made a point of buying me birth control pills, letting him know. So we broke up, I had several more boyfriends, Wendy had several husbands, and Giles had his parents, since his father was forced to retire from the United Methodist Ministery, in `77, age `67. Giles had moved on from Salinas to Mountain View to Woodland by then.
  • Dr. Carl Patton
    I have an earned doctorate in education, a wife, Jewel, a daughter, Martha, and two sons, Robert and Wesley, and am the superintendent of schools in Salinas, Ca. Richard Ferrante was an ACLU attorney aiding prisoners in Soledad state prison. My family lived in the North High area. William Charles Dyer was our Pastor. I loved the Dorsey brothers, who did play together and apart. And I loved Harry "Bing" Lillis "Der Bingle" Crosby and Frank Sinatra Sr. I only remember Cindy Otis` trumpet trio on youth Sundays. Cornet is a soprano version of the standard mezzo trumpet, very high and very sweet. Robert and Wesley worked with the Pastor`s second son, Giles, and others, in "Friends Outside". I was a FORMER Methodist Protestant Christian Pastor. Diana Elizabeth Higgs Dyer, and both her sons, John Charles if only because he was away at University of the Pacific, a fine, Methodist founded, school, seemed unwelcomed at the church, Diana by women seeming to want to feel self important. Jewel thinks she heard the Carpenters and McEntires were Wesleyan Methodist Protestant Christians, so I probably heard it, too. Our LAY leader was Martin Kline, John Charles` first father in law. My family were friends with Cindy`s family and my daughter sang with Amy Kline, on guitar, on Youth Sunday. Jewel says she was friendly with the CrabTree family, who also lived on Lemos Ave., near us and the Kline family.
  • Lorraine Day.
    My "husband", Gordon (not Fred, he misled Nancy McAnaney about that) were members of First Church Salinas, Ca. Norma Day was married to Fred Day, who was not my "husband". Fred may have been Fred Kennedy, from the local church. Giles taught 6th grade Sunday School with me for one Sunday, but my "husband" and a little old lady volunteering on piano, seemed to make him feel unwelcome. My "husband" flaunted kissing me in front of Giles in the resource center for the classroom, but admitted to me he wished Giles was gay so he could have sex with Giles. But Giles was straight, still is, and several of us women wished we could have had sex with Giles. Giles seemed to feel alienated by the profusion of gay men at our church, I did, too. Marion Ferrante was an attractive, small bodied, good black haired lady whose "husband" Richard Ferrante, was a small, black haired, clean shaven, gay man, who worked in prison rehabilitation, not as a prison guard. Donna VeCasey was a small bodied, pretty, blonde keyboardist. Donna`s husband might have been Jimmy VeCasey. Both Jimmy and Donna thought Jimmy might have been straight, like Giles, the preacher`s second son.
  • Ms. Sandra "Sandy" Haney.
    My "Husband" and I replaced the Otis couple as the youth councilors for the Methodist Youth Foundation. We held dances, with Marion Ferrante, and my "husband" would dance with the girls, and I would dance with the boys, Marion would often watch. Then my "husband" tried to have sex discretely with the boys, and, separately, so did I. Giles would see me dancing, glance in my husband`s direction, and leave. He seemed to feel alienated by the profusion of gay men at our church, even though several of the women wanted Giles. I was good looking, with short black hair, my "husband" was Bob Haney.
  • Nancy Margaret McAnaney
    My brother, PatRick James, and I worked with Giles Dyer, Jana Jones, Mary Kamm, Robert Patton, in "Friends Outside", which babysat children and adolescents, so their moms could have sex with their husbands in Soledad state prison, south of Salinas, where Sirhan Bishara Sirhan was incarcerated. My brother and I were Episcopalians. Linda Kraft was one of my best girl friends, Wendy was another one, but Giles rarely saw Linda with me, like he did Wendy, for some reason. My brother PatRick and I played Clarinet at home, not at school. PatRick`s best friend was Steve Gordon, a friend of our friend Noberto Longoria. Our dad, Donald, worked with both Dorsey brothers or tenor sax and on clarinet, worked as a police officer, worked selling insurance while Giles was in Salinas. My brother and I did not especially like Country and Western, but we did like soft rock bands like the Carpenters. We did not consider the British band, Jethro Tull, to be heavy metal, so PatRick liked them, but I did not especially like them. We knew Giles` father, William Charles Dyer, pastor of Salinas, Ca., First United Methodist church. The Lovely Diana McKalip was a United Methodist Director of Christian Education, "married" to Robert/Bob McKalip. Kathy Vix was "married" to Gary Vix. Both Gary Vix and Bob McKalip were reported to have been gay, with men like Lorraine Day`s "husband", Frederick/Fred Day, and with the local Mr. Kennedy, who was also "married", another member of Salinas First church. Mr. Day wished Giles was gay, but he wasn`t, he was straight, and one of my boyfriends as I was one of his girl friends. My brother, PatRick, says, Giles wrote songs, and was better than PatRick was in almost every way. Giles was smarter, bigger, in mass, better looking, with a better voice, funnier than Patrick, but felt alienated by the church context, and dropped out of it long before his older brother John Charles did. Patrick and I never felt much involved with our church, either. My brother PatRick portrayed Merlin in the Salinas High School play, Camelot. Giles continue to visit us from Mountain View, Ca., until at least `74.
  • Doctor Professor Giles Dyer
    My father, Rev. William Charles Dyer, was the pastor at Salinas, Ca., First Church, United Methodist, from `68 thru `72. For some reason, that has not yet been mentioned, odd.
  • Dr. Professor John Charles Dyer.
    I was the drum major for my high school, Sanger Union High School. I sang light baritone. I knew many of the teens mentioned in the Linda Kraft post. Richard Kline was about 6`0, I was about 5`6. Salinas had a rodeo week and parade. My parents and younger brother and I liked various Country and Western novelty performers, like Roy Acuff, Minnie Pearl, Brother OsWald, June Carter Cash, and Johnny Cash. We also liked Country and Western singers, like Merle Haggard, Loretta Lynn, Conway Twitty, Dolly Parton, Porter Wagoner, Barbara Mandrell, Lee Greenwood, Crystal Gayle, Eddie Rabbit, Reba McEntire, Pake McEntire, and Susie LuchSinger, all three of whom were United Methodists. We also liked soft Rock bands, like Karen and Richard Carpenter. Giles Dyer, cousin in law Virginia Moseley, and others, attended Bible study, under the lovely Diana McKalip. I studied Political Science, with a minor emphasis in Liberal Arts, and Law and Public Administration. Giles volunteered for "Friends Outside", I was away much of the time at University of the Pacific. My family liked the Lawrence Welk show, dad routinely chiding the high tenor, Joe Finney, an Eirish American, for singing the closing two notes faggotto. My dad was aware the parents of my first wife, Dr. Amy Ellen Kline Dyer, and Steve Otis, and others, disliked Ms. FiveField, considered her a bad influence. When she accepted a job in Los Angeles, the church failed to budget for her, but then budgeted for her replacement, Diana McKalip. Sadly for Cindy Otis, Giles suggesting she add coronet, which she loved, to her playing first trumpet for Salinas High, did not clue her in to the fact she was one of the many girls Giles liked. My little brother and I also enjoyed singers like Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra Sr., George Jones, Elvis Presley, the Beatles, and the Rolling Stones, as well as songstresses like Connie Francis, Brenda Lee, Diana Ross, Barbra Streisand, Cher, Olivia Newton-John, and Tammy Wynette. I wrote lyrics, Rich Kline wrote music, Giles wrote songs. Giles was better than I was in almost every way, smarter, bigger, better looking, better voice, funnier, but felt alienated by the church context and dropped out of it long before I did. Giles and I were on the speech and debate teams in High School.
  • Ms. Cynthia Otis.
    My trumpet trio which performed in this church also included David RigMaiden, and our Salinas High Drum Major, Bruce Morrow. I was a NON operatic soprano, who played 6 and 12 string guitars, piano, and organ keyboards, as well as coronet and trumpet. I knew many of the teens mentioned in the Linda Kraft post. Kathy Vix was about 5`11 in bare feet and usually wore flat shoes. I was about 5`6. Salinas had a rodeo week and parade. My parents and I liked Country and Western novelty performers, like June Carter Cash, StringBean, Roy Acuff, Minnie Pearl, Brother OsWald. We also liked Country and Western songstresses, like Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, Barbara Mandrell, Crystal Gayle, and Reba McEntire, who was a United Methodist. I also liked soft rock groups like the brother/sister duo of Richard Carpenter, a keyboardist and light baritone, and Karen Carpenter, a soprano, who played drums early on. Giles Dyer and I attended Bible study conducted by our then director of education, the lovely Diana McKalip. I studied computer science with our certificate winner, Steve Gordon, best friend of Patrick James McAnaney, and Noberto Longoria. Patrick`s sister was Nancy McAnaney. Giles volunteered in "Friends Outside", with Jana Jones, Julie Jones, Robert Patton, and others, babying adolescents and younger, so their moms could visit their dads in jail for various purposes, even including sex. My parents also liked the Carpenters. My parents and I liked Hee Haw, which included numerous guests on the comedy show, from Country and western music. As well as the Porter Wagoner show, which featured Dolly Parton. My older brother was Steve Otis. My parents did not like the effect of Diana McKalip`s predecessor, Virginia "Fifi" FiveField, on him and other adolescents. I was not allowed to "date" before age 16, but frequently met others, and wound up in effect "dating". Sadly, not with Giles, that I can remember, though on rare occasions we were in the same class at Salinas High. Giles seemed not to feel welcome, and turned away from church for some reason.
  • Ms. Kathy Vix.
    I was the church choir director for First United Methodist church, Salinas. I was an operatic soprano who played 6 and 12 string guitars and piano and organ keyboards. I knew many of the teens mentioned in the Linda Kraft post. I enjoyed the Karen Carpenter band. I was about 5`11 in flat shoes, with long black hair, and went to the Miss California pageant, and won. Giles Dyer was a European descent, black haired, bearded, moustached, glasses, gentleman, who played piano, bass, organ, cello, harp, in church before turning away from organized religion. He was a songwriter and singer. He enjoyed performances by the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Carpenters, and many others. And solo artists like Bing Crosby, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra Sr., among men, but preferred women like Diana Ross, Barbra Streisand, Cher, and many others. He usually performed music outside the church, sometimes with different instruments. Salinas had a rodeo week including a parade. Giles like Country and Western novelty performers like Roy Acuff and Minnie Pearl. Giles also like Country and Western singers, like Loretta Lynn, her younger sister Crystal Gayle, Dolly Parton, Reba McEntire, and others. Reba McEntire was a United Methodist, like the Carpenters were.
  • Linda Kraft.
    I first remember visiting this church with Bruce Morrow, who was, for a time, in the Cynthia Otis, later Pollard, trumpet trio. I play flute, so did not join, though Giles Dyer persuaded Salinas High`s first trumpet player, Cynthia Otis, to try coronet, which she loved, so perhaps I could have followed her example, and learned to play coronet with her trio. Dave Rigmaiden was the other member. I was an actress in Salinas High plays, and, since our family was on welfare, worked odd jobs. I used to listen, especially, to bands with flutes, like the allegedly heavy metal band, Jethro Tull, featuring Ian Andersen on flute, and the soft rock band, the Carpenters, featuring Bob Messenger on flute, tenor sax, electric bass, alto flute, etc. I used to be amused by Ian`s extra long hair, beard, moustache, and lifting of his left leg, for breath support allegedly, in his trademarked seeming pose. Ian was the lead singer as a baritone in his band, during the period I was in Salinas, Richard Carpenter sometimes sang lead as a light baritone, but he was soon supplanted by his "lead sister", Karen, on vocals, Rich having started exclusively on keyboards, though he could play other instruments, Karen primarily on drum set, also without vocals, in a band called Spectrum. I was friendly with Jana Jones and Mary Kamm, who also joined Methodist Youth Fellowship activities. Both of them played acoustic guitar, like Cindy did, Jana also played piano, like Cindy did, and Jana also played oboe and clarinet, like Earle Dumler of the Carpenters played, along with the alto English Horn. Julie Jones was a year younger than her sister Jana, and played violin. Mary was about Giles`s height, 5`8, exactly for Mary, the other girls mentioned were above 5 feet taller. Giles Dyer was a song writer who ghost wrote Ian Andersen of Jethro Tull, and the Carpenters, the Beatles, a classical musician named Isaac Dvorak, a Jew, and a homo, and MANY others. Gayle Levant was the orchestral Harp player for the Carpenters, but did not tour with them. My little sister was Pamela Kraft, who had reddish hair, but, I had naturally blonde hair.
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