In July 2006, Willie and Bobbie Nelson performed at the Abbott Methodist Church to celebrate its reopening. Willie purchased the church and a general store in the small town north of Waco on Interstate 35, where he and sister Bobbie grew up. (Photo courtesy of Janis Tillerson)
by: Fred Afflerbach
ABBOTT – Almost four years ago, country music legend Willie Nelson and sister Bobbie returned to their childhood church to perform at Sunday services. With Bobbie seated at the grand piano and Willie on vocals, the brother and sister duo asked the enduring question, “Will the circle be unbroken?”
The Nelsons were celebrating the reopening of their beloved Abbott Methodist Church.
Just a few months before this service, the small congregation at the 100-year-old wood frame building where the Nelsons sang and worshipped as kids held a closing ceremony called “End of an Era.”
Church attendance had dwindled to just a handful. The few remaining members planned to close the congregation and sell the church to an entrepreneur, who would haul it away, leaving an empty lot where so many special memories were born.
But when Nelson’s boyhood friend, Donald Reed, learned the church was up for sale he immediately telephoned Willie.
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