Lorine Garrett
1928-2019
Lorine Garrett, 90, of Snyder, died Friday, March 22, 2019 at Cogdell Memorial Hospital.
Funeral service for Mrs. Garrett will be held at 10 a.m. Friday in the Bell-Cypert-Seale Funeral Home Chapel with Bob Martin and Darrell Chappell officiating. Burial will follow at Snyder Cemetery.
Visitation will be held from 6-7 p.m. today at the funeral home.
Born on Aug. 9, 1928 in Hollis, Okla. to Willie and Carrie (Hammer) Smith, she married Wade Garrett on Nov. 5, 1951 in Snyder. He preceded her in death on April 19, 2008. Lorine was a member of 37th Street Church of Christ and loved to cook, sew and quilt.
She was also preceded in death by her parents, Willie Smith and Carrie Smith Garcia; her stepfather, Joe Garcia; one son, Bill Garrett; five brothers, J.T. Smith, Willie Smith, Early Garcia, Bobbie Garcia and John Garcia; and one sister, Eula Faye Williams.
Survivors include one daughter, Emma Garrett of Snyder; one adopted daughter, Vera Cain of Snyder; one sister, Maxine Riggins of Snyder; seven grandchildren, Jonathan Garrett, Christopher Garrett, Brenton Garrett, Brock Garrett, Marcus Garrett, Shelly Garrett and Raylee Garrett; five great-grandchildren; and four great-great-grandchildren.
Online condolences may be posted at www.bellcypertseale.com.
Dick Gray
1919-2019
Longtime Snyder resident Paul Novell “Dick” Gray passed away at his home Tuesday, March 26, 2019.
A celebration of life service will be held at 4 p.m. Saturday in the Bell-Cypert Seale Funeral Home Chapel. Burial will follow at Hillside Memorial Gardens.
Visitation will be held from 6-7 p.m. Friday at the funeral home.
Born on Dec. 15, 1919 at home in the country outside Proctor, Dick was the third of nine children of Rush Oliver Gray and Gertrude “Gertie” Dean (Woolsey) Gray. He graduated from Comyn High School when there were only 11 grades to complete for graduation, a fact that he said “suited him just fine.”
Dick’s early years during the Depression were spent working wherever he could find a job to be able to send money back home. Those stints in Houston, Borger, Monahans, Eunice, N.M. and California were precursors to what formed Dick’s drive and devotion to succeed.
That work ethic followed Dick his whole life and that is how he’ll be remembered by those who knew him. Finding work harder and harder to get, he and his three best friends decided to “get steady, easy work” and, together, they enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Force on June 3, 1941 and joined the 2nd Service Squadron, 46th Group and were sent to Kelly Field in San Antonio.
In 1941, at a dance in Hondo, Dick met the love of his life, Alice. But with the outbreak of World War II and about to be shipped overseas to the Philippines, he asked Alice to wait for him and said if he made it back home, he wanted her to marry him. At the war’s end, Staff Sgt. Paul Gray was honorably discharged on Jan. 13, 1946 and headed home to Alice. Four days after his discharge, on Jan. 17, 1946, Dick and Alice were married in Llano and the Gray family odyssey began.
The two moved to Eunice, N.M., where Dick worked for Samedan Oil Company until he moved Alice and new son, Rodney, to a Phillips Petroleum Company oil camp outside Goldsmith. In December 1952, son Gordon was born and in mid-1953, the family moved to Snyder and Dick joined Burdell Oil Company and his mentor, Elmer Cook. Burdell dissolved, but Dick continued work in the oil business and over the years, he, along with Alice and other partners, founded and were the principals of Paul Gray Oil Company, Dick and Bill Roustabout Crews, TransTexTool Company, Submersible Services, Inc., as well as other oilfield related businesses. He loved working until the night he passed away and couldn’t have loved his Paul Gray Farms operation, his oil business, nor his family more. He was a conservative, save-everything-to-repurpose-later kind of guy, who was also a no-nonsense, get it done, self-made man, and a throwback of the nearly 100 years that he lived, and a man who had a catalog memory that served him until death. As he always said upon ending a conversation, “I’ll be around, somewhere.” And he will always be that, in our hearts and memories.
Dick was preceded in death by his wife, best friend and partner in all things, Alice, on July 26, 2000; his parents; all eight of his siblings, in birth order, Ruby, Winnie, Hazel, Jack, R.O. “Junior,” Joe, Melba and Ruth Ann; and many members of their extended families.
Survivors include his sons Rodney of Aledo and Gordon of Snyder and their wives, Mary and Barbara; his grandson, Brandon and Erin Sopronyi of Lubbock; his grandson, Stafford and his wife, Megan, and great-granddaughters, Caroline and Charlotte, all of Lonoke, Ark.; Alan and his wife, Jerica, and great-granddaughter, Piper, all of Snyder; his grandson, Spencer and his fiancé, Danielle Sears, of Ira; and his nieces and nephews, who really loved their Uncle Dick.
Special thanks to Peaches Coward, who cared for Dick as if he was her own family. They regularly got into heated games of 31 and dominoes.
Memorials may be made to to VFW organizations, the Scurry County Senior Citizens Center, Cogdell Memorial Hospital, Shriner’s Children’s Hospital, West Texas Rehab or a charity of choice.
Online condolences may be posted at www.bellcypertseale.com.
Max von Roeder
1932-2019
Max von Roeder passed away peacefully at his home on Sunday, March 24, 2019.
Funeral service Mr. von Roeder will be held at 2 p.m. Friday at Trinity United Methodist Church with the Rev. Larry Rodgers officiating. A reception in the fellowship hall will follow the service. A private family graveside service will follow the reception under the direction of Bell-Cypert-Seale Funeral Home.
Max was born on Aug. 30, 1932 in Knapp in Borden County to Nolan and Opal (Maxwell) von Roeder. He grew up helping on the family peach orchard and cotton farm, attending Murphy School and Ira schools until his parents moved to Snyder his sophomore year.
He graduated in 1950 from Snyder High School and enrolled in Texas Tech University. He married his high school sweetheart, Anne Richardson of Dunn, on Dec. 23, 1951. After graduating from Texas Tech in 1954 with an agronomy degree and the ROTC program, he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force and was stationed at Gary Air Force Base in San Marcos, where he achieved the rank of second lieutenant in November 1956. They moved back to Snyder, where he worked at von Roeder Seed Farms. He was a cotton farmer and a cattle rancher. He retired from farming in 1979 and took over management of von Roeder Seed Farms.
As an active member of the Snyder community, he had served on many boards. He was a longtime member of the chamber of commerce, serving as president in 1970, as well as being a member of the Gold Coats.
He served for several years on the Board of County Development (BCD), Cogdell Hospital Foundation board, as well as the Snyder ISD board of trustees for 13 years. In 1975, he joined the Snyder Lions Club, and served as the District 2T2 governor of Lions International in 1986. He believed in their motto “We Serve.” He had served for several years as the District 2T2 tail twister. He served for 46 years as a member of the Community Bank of Snyder board of directors. He was a longtime member of Trinity United Methodist Church, where he served as lay leader and many other board positions.
Max was an avid hunter. He also loved playing dominos at the Scurry County Gin and Scurry County Senior Citizens Center. He spent his spare time at their cabin at Colorado City, enjoying Sunday night “gatherings” with his family or watching the Texas Tech Red Raiders or Texas Rangers baseball. He participated in the Snyder Wheels Car Club and sometimes showed off his 1950 Ford Crestliner.
He is survived by his wife of 67 years, Anne; three children, Lisa Williams and her husband, Jim, and Nolan von Roeder and his wife, Audra, all of Snyder, and Jeana Riley and her husband, Kinney, of Midland; six grandchildren, Adriane Williams of Snyder, Anna Williams Haywood and her husband, Craig, and Wes von Roeder and his wife, Jordan, all of Midland, Lauren Duke Atchison and her husband, Cullen, of Houston, Erin Riley Browning and her husband, Davis, of Dallas and Nathan von Roeder and his fiancee, Devin Kelley, of Lubbock; one sister, Carla Clark of Richardson, and the late Lindy Clark; his sisters-in-law and brothers-in-law, Mary Alice and Jerry Dunn, John Richardson, and the late Betty Richardson, and Greg and Judy Gebben; and numerous nieces, nephews and cousins.
A special thanks to Ashley, Marie, Ola and Evelyn and the staff of Cogdell Home Health for their great care during these last few months.
Memorials may be made to the Texas Lions Camp, 4100 Highway 27, Kerrville, TX 78020; Trinity Methodist Church Blessing Fund, 5200 Trinity Blvd., Snyder, TX 79549; or Cogdell Hospice, 1700 Cogdell Blvd., Snyder, TX 79549.
Online condolences may be posted at www.bellcypertseale.com.