Loving each other, loving others

Nov. 23—A photograph framed and hung on the wall perfectly relays the spirit of both the Bread Connection's mission and the attitudes of founders Randy and Becky Hightower.

In the photo, Bread Connection board members pose with the Hightowers joined by an initially uninvited but ultimately welcomed bystander.

Upon realizing that a photo was soon to be snapped, a homeless man who helps out at the Bread Connection's Cleburne headquarters from time to time quickly, and unnoticed by the rest, smiled big and positioned himself for inclusion.

"We didn't realize he was there until after they took the picture," Randy Hightower said. "But you know, it works. Instead of taking another picture we decided this was the one."

Such antics carry over to the Hightower's personal relationship.

"I like this picture of us," Randy Hightower jokes, scanning pictures on his phone of the couple's 54 years of married life. "Becky looks old, but not me."

Becky, no doubt having heard similar quips countless times before, rolls her eyes delivering a 'What am I going to do with him?' answered by a smile response.

Randy, in his next breath, exudes obvious pride while talking up a women of influence award his wife recently received.

Such serious yet lighthearted lets make a difference and do it right but have lots of fun doing it approach captures the essence of both the Bread Connection and the Hightowers, and played into the couple's Times-Review's 2023 Man and Woman of the Year selection. Call it faith-based frivolity. Working hard to help others all the while remembering to enjoy the ride.

Growing up

Becky grew up in Haltom City. Randy was born in New Mexico but his family moved to Fort Worth when he was young. His father bought a farm near Keene and moved the family to Cleburne when Randy was about 15, which is where Randy and Becky have lived since 1980.

The couple married in 1969.

"The Age of Aquarius," Becky Hightower said.

The couple met through church, sort of. Becky initially noticed Randy's younger brother.

"I was about three years older than them," Randy Hightower said. "He told me, 'Man, I met this really pretty girl in Sunday school and I really like her.'

"I thought, 'Huh, I think I'll check this out.' So I stole her. He didn't hold it against me though."

The couple dated casually for a few months.

"I went back to my old girlfriend for a few months after that but then wanted to pick back up with Becky," Randy Hightower said. "Anyway, we made a date during the week for that Friday night but she forgot about it and made a date with this other guy."

Ready for his date, Randy showed up Friday night knocking on Becky's door.

"You know how when somebody opens the door and has a surprised look on their face?" Randy Hightower said. "She made some kind of excuse but I found out later that [the other guy] was coming over. So she made two dates for the same night and forgot about one of them."

A story Becky Hightower said she'd just as soon not include in the article.

"Oh I want that in there," Randy Hightower insists. "I want that in the first sentence."

Their first date was seeing Steppenwolf at Will Rogers Coliseum, Becky's first concert, but not Randy's.

"Man there were concerts every weekend back then," Randy Hightower said. "Chuck Berry, Jimi Hendrix, Ten Years After with Alvin Lee, the Rolling Stones, Chicago.

Randy saw Hendrix three times.

"The first time was at Will Rogers," Randy Hightower said. "My friends and I didn't know him. My sister, someone gave her tickets to this concert, we'd never heard of the guy. But she asked if we wanted to go. We were like, 'Why not?' We went, less than 50 people there. He was just starting out. He did the whole Jimi Hendrix Experience show, tearing up the guitar, setting it on fire and all that stuff. A year later at the [Tarrant County Convention Center] it was packed. You couldn't hardly get in. We got in somehow though."

Movie wise, Becky liked the Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello Beach Blanket movies while Randy preferred Paul Newman and Robert Redford movies.

"We went to the drive ins back then," Becky Hightower said. "Contacts weren't out yet. I couldn't see what was up there on the screen half the time."

During a Vietnam War protest in Fort Worth one demonstrator had a seizure.

"The police thought he was on drugs, bad trip or something and started messing with him," Randy Hightower said. "His friend knew he was epileptic and said so but the police ignored them. That got everybody mad and caused a commotion. Me and some others ended up getting arrested. That's okay. It was for a good cause and it makes me look like a cool outlaw."

Two weeks after Woodstock, Lewisville's Dallas International Motor Speedway hosted the Texas International Pop Festival. Randy and Becky were there as were Janis Joplin, Santana, Led Zeppelin, Sly and the Family Stone, Grand Funk Railroad, B.B. King, Johnny Winter and others.

The couple returned to Lewisville in 2019 to mark the 50th anniversary of both the festival and their marriage.

"Becky got a T-shirt from it," Randy Hightower joked.

Life goes on

"I was going to school and had finished my second year," Randy Hightower said with a laugh. "Then she made me marry her and that was the end of my schooling till I was 50."

Three sons, Che, Todd and Keith, followed.

"Nothing pink in the house," Becky Hightower joked.

Randy got a job at LTV Aerospace before moving on to General Dynamics where he worked until retiring in 2013. Becky, now retired also, said she did clerical work.

The couple throughout their marriage, and younger life, remained involved in church activities serving as Sunday school teachers, elders and in other capacities.

"It's just what you do," Becky Hightower answered when asked where her passion for serving others originated.

Randy agreed.

"God," Randy Hightower said. "[Becky's] got a heart of gold. She's selfless. I'm self centered."

Joking aside, Randy's actions belies such self deprecation.

He and Becky for years performed concerts for retirement home residents and participated in religious retreats and outreach programs involving prison ministry and at-risk youth.

The Bread of Life

The Bread Connection, Randy Hightower said, wasn't planned or intended to happen so much as it just sort of developed.

"This is how it started," Randy Hightower said. "We were going to First Christian Church and this gentleman who had recently retired was moving to Fort Worth. Well, he had volunteered picking up donations from H-E-B on Friday morning and carrying them to Operation Blessing.

"He asked if I wanted to take it over since he was moving. I'd just retired about a year before so said, 'Yeah, I'll do that.'"

Three of four months in Operation Blessing workers informed Randy that the center was going to start closing on Fridays.

"Well, I thought, 'What are we going to do with all this food?'" Randy Hightower said. "They told us it's ours and do whatever you want with it."

Unsure what to do, the Hightowers began taking the food to the Johnson County Crisis Center and the Cleburne Christian Lodge.

Donations continued to come in. Charitable organizations would find themselves with too much bread, bananas or other food items so the Hightowers worked to find other organizations in need of those items and deliver them over.

"None of this was planned," Randy Hightower said. "Things just kept falling into our lap. But on the other hand, it's just like all this stuff started happening to us like it was planned."

The Hightowers at the time ran the operation out of their home.

"We were working heavy out of our garage with 11 appliances lining the walls, an electrician friend put extra plugs in," Becky Hightower said. "It got ridiculous. We had pallets, our car sitting out in the yard."

Something else was missing as well.

"We didn't even have a name yet at that point," Randy Hightower said. "We were just showing up and people would say, 'Here's Randy and Becky with some food.'

"We realized we needed something and Becky came up with the name."

She didn't have to look far for inspiration.

"Well, we're faith-based so it's not just about delivering food," Becky Hightower said.

"I am the bread of life," Jesus says in John 6:35.

"That double meaning of bread as food and life so connection to because of connecting with others to help people out and connecting people together in the process," Becky Hightower said.

The Bible verse graces the sides of two Bread Connection delivery vans. Both replaced an old van the Hightowers removed the seats from and both were donated to the organization by Johnson County courtesy of the county's Covid-19 federal grant funding.

Randy stresses the Bread Connection's purpose.

"There's a pantry and then there's a food bank," Randy Hightower said. "They're not the same thing. Operation Blessing is a pantry, not a food bank. A food bank is like Tarrant Area Food Bank or what we do. We bring trucks around and deliver stuff to pantries and other charitable organizations. But people don't come up to us one by one to get food."

The Bread Connection, which moved to their current location in 2019, now regularly delivers food to pantries and other organizations throughout Johnson County.

One being a food pantry aimed at students started in 2018 by now retired Southwestern Adventist University Professor Judy Miles.

"I realized that some of our students were going without food," Miles said. "They were living in the community instead of the dorms, here without their parents or family, paying rent then having no money left for food."

Miles, with her own money, began buying food to hand out from her classroom. That evolved into the pantry moving into the university's student center.

"Randy called one day, I didn't know him," Miles said. "He said he heard we could use some food. Since then he and Becky have been bringing food every Wednesday. They show up, unload box after box of bread, veggies, fruits, sweets different things.

"I'm so grateful. Our students are so grateful. I couldn't do what I do without them because they've just been so supportive."

Cleburne business owner Greg Harmon befriended the Hightower's son in sixth grade.

"So I've known the family for a long time," Harmon said. "Randy came to me a few years back about helping put a board together because the Bread Connection had grown to the point where one was needed.

"Out of all the boards I've been on this one has been the most gratifying to me because I've seen God work so much through their ministry. They started something because it was laid on their heart by God. They're in their 70s and don't act like it. It's working seven days a week for those guys."

Cleburne business owner Fernando Rodriguez, also a Bread Connection board member, agreed.

"When I learned about what they were doing I was excited and wanted to be part of it," Rodriguez said. "They're retired and yet they have a whole new job and work everyday. They could just as easily sit on the porch and enjoy retirement. I admire them for that and they provide encouragement for all of us to get involved in helping others and community."

Michelle Moralez, organizer of Cleburne's annual free Christmas Feast feels much the same.

"Randy and Becky got involved helping us with the Christmas Feast a few years ago and have made a huge difference," Moralez said. "They're incredible and just everywhere helping out."

And the band plays on

"We don't; there's no balance," Randy Hightower replied when asked how he and Becky juggle the Bread Connection and personal life.

The Bread Connection is their fun, Becky added.

Though church, family and music play in as well.

Both continue to sing and play as do their sons. Randy, and sometimes Becky, record original songs and enjoy attending music festivals.

"We went from Steppenwolf and the Rolling Stones to bluegrass," Randy Hightower joked. "And some country."

The couple's rock 'n' roll spirit endures, however, as attested by their recent first hearing of the new Rolling Stones' song "Sweet Sounds of Heaven."

"That's Mick [Jagger] all right," Randy Hightower exclaimed a few second into the song. "That's straight up blues rock. Oh, I like it already!"