Grayson County TXGenWeb

Henry Clontz

I used to LOVE to get to go with Daddy to the gas dock and walk down that ramp out on the water! He would put out trout lines for catfish around the bank of the lake and boat houses where the fish liked to hole up. He always caught a lot of fish for us to eat and helped a lot of other people do the same.

ca 1960's

L - R: Unknown Fisherman & Henry Clontz

My Dad Henry Sherman Clountz standing inside the floating gas dock at Loe's Highport Marina in the late 1960s. See the coffee in the background to keep him awake; he worked 6pm until 6am Tuesday night through Sunday night on the gas dock as night watchman and dock attendant.

Daddy had a couple of little battery operated transistor radios with a carry case that he used when he worked twelve hour night shifts at Island View and Loe's Highport Resort on Lake Texoma in the late 1950s through the 60s to keep him awake. After he got sick and started having one stroke after another in the late 60s, and eventually died in November 24, 1969 right before Thanksgiving, the radio came to me.
I LOVED Daddy's old AM transistor radio for many reasons - but NOT because it sounded good. It was old and little and had one speaker (that didn't know what Bass is) and sounded like static all the time. I always LOVED music. I was 9 years old, and just starting to enjoy the popular music of the day, and the radio allowed me to finally listen to music I wanted to hear and not just what Mama was listening to (Country). It had a leather cover with a handle and antiquated earphones, so I could take it wherever I went. I was always outside doing something - playing ball, walking through the woods, climbing trees and sitting in them, etc. All the while, I had Daddy's Radio with me, singing to me. It was terrible quality sound, of course, AM radio, full of static, mono tone speaker, but I loved it! It belonged to him and now it was mine, if I couldn't be with him, then something of his could stay with me.

Daddy was known and loved by so many people, not only in Grayson county, but in the whole region. After all these years, people still tell stories of how they remember him and his friendliness and kindness to them. Even people like the cast of the TV show "Bonanza" were regular visitors to the lake and knew Daddy. Dan Blocker, the man who played Hoss Cartwright, lived part time not far away in Hooks, Bowie Co., Texas. I was really blown away by this realization when I was going through Mama's things after her death. I found letters that were written to her after Daddy's death in 1969 when I was 9 years old. He was sick for about 2 years and off work a lot, and Loe's kept paying him to help us out. Mr. C. D. Loe, Sr. even personally paid to have a phone put in our house because he found out Daddy had had a stroke and I had to run a quarter mile down the road to a neighbor's house to call the ambulance, when I was 6 years old. Daddy died at Thanksgiving, with Christmas coming up and Mama was old and wasn't working, so there was no income. So the boat owners at Loe's Highport, started by Mr. Miller at a Sherman bank, all chipped in and sent many donations and wonderful notes of condolance and tribute to Daddy to us. I knew he was a wonderful man, and evidently, so did everyone who knew him. ~ ~ ~ Natalie Clountz Bauman