Sabbath Reynolds was born in the Deep South in 1950’s. As her name suggests, her parents were deeply religious. These days, her family attended a Southern Baptist church. Sabbath’s parents, Ruthann and Caleb, for many years, had been seeking the right spiritual path. They explored many Protestant denominations - Mormon, Pentecostal, and Jehovah Witness. They preferred an evangelical approach to religion.
Ruthann hailed from a remote enclave in the Ozark Mountains, a place steeped in folklore. Caleb was born and raised in Texas. He carried a goodly amount of Cherokee blood. His great-grandfather was a respected elder of the tribe. On her mother’s side, Scotch-Irish was the prevailing lineage. Her father was a noted fiddler in the Celtic musical tradition. Ruthann had a deft hand playing the dulcimer and the auto harp. They represented the prototypical stereotype of Southern mountain folk.
Her father was a career military man – US Air Force – to be exact. Thus, they were widely traveled – San Antonia, TX, Dover, Delaware, McGuire Air Force base in New Jersey, Andrews in California, Greece, Guam, Iceland. They recently returned to Texas after her father’s tour in Guam. Sabbath was happy to be on familiar soil. However, she enjoyed the cultural diversity of all the places she relocated with her family. She was recently baptized per the Baptist creed by full immersion in the river. Publicly, she proclaimed her faith but deep inside, was not sure it was her spiritual calling. Respecting her parents, she complied with their wishes and proclaimed herself saved in the name of Jesus.
She was an only child, but that was not also so. Jacob was her younger brother dead three years now. It happened in Delaware. He complained of a stomachache. Her parents, at that time, belonged to a Christian Science church. They espoused their beliefs that rejected medical intervention and utilized healers from the church. Jacob’s condition worsened, bleeding internally out through his rectum. Emergency services were summoned and he was rushed to the ER. The autopsy revealed he suffered from a intestinal blockage that burst leading to fatal peritonitis. He was seven years old when he died.
Local law enforcement with child welfare intervention arrested her parents and charged them with negligent manslaughter. The story was great fodder for news media until the district attorney’s office decided not to pursue charges. The community that they currently lived was conservatively Christian and it would have been political suicide. The Air Force also conducted an investigation. Although her father was not cited for misconduct, they were transferred off the base and sent to Guam. The last years were spent there in the tropics.