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"A farmer and a teacher, a hooker and a preacher." That was the opening line that popped into songwriter Doug Johnson's head one evening. He had no idea it would become one of the biggest country songs in recent years. As recorded by country star Randy Travis, "Three Wooden Crosses" received high honors at all the major country music awards shows, and also won a Dove Award from the Gospel Music Association.

After Johnson came up with the initial verse and the chorus, he called his friend and songwriting partner Kim Williams, and the two finished the story. Those familiar with the song know that the four characters are bound for Mexico when a tragic bus wreck takes the life of three of them. At the end of the song, the listener finds out that the only one to survive the crash was the hooker, who becomes a believer and passes on to her son the bloodstained Bible given to her from the preacher on that fateful night. Her own son then becomes a pastor and, in the song, is relating the story to his congregation.

"Kim came over and said he had this other line, 'It's not what you take, but what you leave behind,' and wondered if we could work it into the song," says Johnson, now a recording executive with Curb Records. "By then, we knew how it was going to end. It was just a matter of figuring out how to get there."

Kim Williams's own path to Nashville is almost as miraculous as the song. A native of Poor Valley, Tennessee, Williams was injured in a glass plant explosion in 1974 in Kingsport, Tennessee, that resulted in third-degree burns over much of his body. While recuperating in the hospital, Williams saw an ad for a songwriting class and decided to enroll. Since that time, he has written a string of hits that includes "She's Gonna Make It" (Garth Brooks) and "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" (Reba McEntire).

"Three Wooden Crosses" is reminiscent of the old country classics from the '60s and '70s. There was one small glitch, however. "People started coming up to us and saying, 'What happened to the bus driver?' We hadn't really thought about that," Johnson laughs. "So we just started telling people that Jesus was the bus driver."

Words and music by Doug Johnson and Kim Williams. © 2002 Mike Curb Music / Sweet Radical Music/Sony. Randy Rudder is an entertainment writer in Nashville.

Copyright © 2005 by the author or Christianity Today International/Today's Christian magazine.
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