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Dr Gordon Eugene Richardson, second son of Samuel Scott and Leah Johnson Richardson, was born in Bay City on August 8, 1918. His name was derived from that of his uncles, Pettus Gordon Secrest, and Dr. Edward Eugene Scott . On March 19, 1919, when he was seven months old his mother died in the flu epidemic. He and his brother, Scott, were alternately cared for by their grandparents, George Carroll and Salura Orpha Johnson and James Luther and Emma Ora Scott Richardson, until Sam Richardson married Myrtle Darby on June 21, 1921.The depression necessitated the family's move from the place of his nativity, and he attended school in several Texas towns and cities. While attending Bay City High School, he was a member of the Black Cat football team, and held jobs as a teenager at Matagorda Pharmacy, The Alcove, and the concession stand at the Frels State Theatre. Upon completion of his high school education, he entered Texas Tech College in Lubbock, and thereafter entered Northern Illinois College of Optometry in Chicago. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7 , 1941, his class was told that since they lacked only one semester until graduation, they would not be subject to military duty until after their graduation in May of 1942.His military service from March 31, 1944, to June 1, 1946, was with the 1852nd Service Command Unit of the Medical Department of the Army. He remembered vividly standing at attention for three hours at Camp Bowie, Brownwood, Texas, when the Commander in Chief of the Armed Services, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, died on April 12, 1945. He was honorably discharged on June 1, 1946.By his former marriage to Joyce Murlene Wade, daughter of Mike Cager and Juanita Opal Johnson Wade , on August 29, 1953; he became the father of his first daughter at the age of thirty-six. Donna Murlene Richardson was born at Bay City, Texas. She was educated in the Bay City schools, and attended Wharton County Junior College. She married first, Dr Larry William Falknor, son of William Richard and Mary Evelyn Kowis Falknor, on April 17, 1971. They had a son, Stuart William Falknor. She married second, Terrell Joseph Friedrich, son of Robert Edwin Friedrich, Jr., and Arlene Wolff Friedrich, of Columbus, Texas, on June 8, 1975. To this union were born, Chelsea Renea on in Bay City, and Graeme Edward, born in Singapore.Dr Richardson's second daughter , Jeanne Anne, was born in Bay City. Upon graduation from Bay City High School, she married James Lee Naiser, son of Johnnie and Marcella Orsak Naiser, on June 8, 1974. Their daughter, Shelley Leanne in Wharton, Texas. Jeanne Naiser was a dance instructor, and both she and her husband were active in the community theatrical and dance productions. Active in civic and fraternal organizations.Dr. Richardson held a life membership and thirty-one years perfect attendance in the Bay City Lions Club. He held all offices locally, and served as District Governor in 1975-76. He was a member of Bay City Lodge No. 865, A.F & A.M., a thirty-second degree Mason belonging to the Scottish Rite Bodies of Galveston, the York Rite Bodies of Lubbock, and the Arabia Temple Shrine in Houston. He was made a Knight Commander Court of Honor in the Galveston Consistory in 1965. He was a charter member of the Cradle of Texas Chapter, Sons of the American Revolution, where he served as first Registrar. On Easter Sunday, April 22, 1973, Dr Richardson married Mrs. Jean Wilkinson Smith, daughter of Walter William Wilkinson, Jr. and Marjorie Bruce Wilkinson. She was born on March 21, 1935, in Bay City, and was a seventh generation Matagorda Countian. Her grandparents were Walter William and Helen Gossett Wilkinson, and James Arthur and Lorena Nolte Bruce. She was baptized on Easter Eve, April 20, 1935, in St. Mark's Episcopal Church, and was a lifelong member of that Church. She was active in the Episcopal Youth programs in her teen years on the local and state level. She joined the Girl Scouts at the age of nine, and was the first in Bay City to earn the coveted Curve Bar, that organization's highest award. A 1953 graduate of Bay City High School, she attended Sullins College, Bristol, Virginia, and The University of Texas. She was a charter member of the Mary Rolph Marsh Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, and a member of James W Fannin Chapter, Victoria, Texas, Daughters of the Republic of Texas. She married first Dr. Cloid Daniel Smith, son of Cloid and Ruth Seibert Watts, on December 4, 1958. His father died before his birth, and his stepfather, Mervyn C. Smith, adopted him. Their daughter, Virginia Sullins Smith, was born in Bay City. She attended San Marcos Baptist Academy, Victoria College, and the University of St. Thomas, Houston. She married Fredrick Alan Kapp on February 23, 1979. He was the son of Arnold and Thelma Fishman Kapp. They were the parents of one son, Mason Allen Kapp in Bay City.Dr. . Richardson holds the record for his length of time in eye care in Bay City He opened his practice of Optometry in Bay City in 1953, after having practiced in Brownfield and Lubbock, and retired in October of 1982, after practicing for a total of forty years. He and his wife, Jean, are interested in the preservation of history and the promotion of patriotism, and pursue genealogy as their hobby.
Historic Matagorda County, Volume II,
1986 pp 426-427 |
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Funeral services for Dr. Gordon Eugene Richardson, 76, of Bay City are scheduled for 2 p. m. Thursday, Sept. 29, 1984, at First United Methodist Church with the Rev. Buford Finley of First United Methodist Church and the Rev. James E. Scott, Episcopal chaplain at the Seaman’s Center at the Port of Houston, officiating. Burial will be in Hawley Cemetery in Blessing and gravesite rites will be conducted under the auspices of the Masonic Lodge and American Legion Post 11. Dr. Richardson was born Aug. 8, 1918, in Bay City to Samuel Scott and Ella Leah Johnson Richardson and died Sept. 27, 1994, at his residence. A member of the Bay City Blackcat football team and graduate of Texas Tech University and Northern Illinois College of Optometry in Chicago, he practiced optometry in Brownfield and Lubbock during WWII and returned to Bay City to practice optometry from 1953 until his retirement in 1982. He holds the record for length of eye care in Bay City. He served in the 1852nd service command unit of the Medical Department of the Army during World War II. Active in the civic fraternal organizations, he was a 48-year member of the Lions Club and served as District Governor in 1975-1976. He was a recipient of the Melvin Jones Award, held a life membership in the Bay City Lions Club, Texas Lions Camp for Crippled Children, and was a past director of the Texas Lions Eye Bank. He was a member of the Bay City Lodge No. 865, A. F. and A. M. and a 32nd degree mason. He belonged to the Scottish Rite Bodies of Galveston, the York Bodies of Lubbock, and Arabia Temple Shrine of Houston. He was made Knight Commander Court of Honor in the Galveston Consistory in 1965, held a life membership and was a 48-year member of American Legion Post 11, a charter member of the Cradle of Texas Chapter Sons of the American Revolution, where he served as first registrar, a charter member of the Matagorda Chapter 35, Sons of the Republic of Texas, where he served as first historian and a charter member of the Matagorda County Genealogical Society. Survivors include his wife, Jean Wilkinson Richardson; two daughters, Donna Friedrich of Flower Mound and Jeanne and Jimmy Naiser of Bay City; a step-daughter, Virginia and David Chapman of Van Vleck; grandchildren, Stuart Falknor of College Station, Chelsea and Graeme Friedrich and Shelley and Jayme Naiser of Bay City; and step-grandsons, Mason Kapp and Joey Chapman of Van Vleck; a brother, Scott Richardson and his wife, Anne, of Bay City; two nieces and a father-in-law, Walter W. Wilkinson, Jr. Pallbearers are Sidney Schwartz, Dr. Larry Falknor, Jimmy Naiser, Monte Marshall, Bobby Wilkinson and Kenneth Thames. Honorary pallbearers are the members of the Bay City Lions Club, all Lions of District 26-A, members of the American Legion Post 11, members of the Sons of the American Revolution and the sons of the Republic of Texas. Memorials may be made to the Texas Lions Camp for Crippled Children, P. O. Box 247, Kerrville, Texas, 78029-0247; the Matagorda County Genealogical Society, P.O. Box 264, Bay City, Texas, 77404 or the Texas Lions Eye Bank, Baylor College of Medicine, Cullen Eye Institute, 6501 Fannin Suite, C-307, Houston, Texas, 77030. Services are under the direction of Dick R. Elkins, Bay City Funeral Home.
Daily Tribune, September 28,
1994 |
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Funeral Today Samuel Scott Richardson, 75, a local jeweler and long-time resident of Bay City, died Friday afternoon. Funeral services were held at 10 a. m. Monday at The First Methodist Church, the Rev. Connie Winborn officiating. Burial was in Cedarvale Cemetery. Richardson was a past president of the Bay City Rotary Club. In 1961 he received the highest award given for his contribution to the Boy Scouts, the Silver Beaver award. He was a member of The First Methodist Church throughout his residence in Bay City, and served on two commissions of the church, and on the administrative board. He was a mason for 50 years, and made all the crowns for the Rice Festival queens. Richardson was born in Florence, Texas. He is survived by two sons, Samuel Scott Richardson Jr. and Gordon Eugene Richardson, both of Bay City, and four grandchildren. Pallbearers were John Woolsey, Vim Rye, Otis Russell, J. P. Graham, George Shoultz, Ralph Bussell, J. K. Mattox and Emil Burger. Honorary pallbearers were members of the Bay City Rotary Club, the Wesley Bible Class of The First Methodist Church and members of Masonic Lodge No. 865. Daily Tribune, Monday, December 9, 1968
September 22, 1894 – March 23, 1919
Mrs. Samuel Scott Richardson was born in Prairie Lea, September 22, 1894, and died at her home in Bay City at an early hour Sunday, March 23, after an illness of only four days of pneumonia.
Mrs. Richardson is known here as Miss Leah Johnson, being a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. George C. Johnson, of this place. Her life was spent here until some six years ago when she, with her parents, moved to Bay City. She was married there five years ago and besides her husband leaves two small sons and a sister, Miss Willie Johnson, of Bay City, a father, mother, three sisters and a brother here and two brothers in the U. S. Navy.
Leah was a devoted Christian woman, uniting with the Baptist Church here in her girlhood and later becoming a member of the Methodist Church at Bay City with her husband. She was always bright and cheerful, making and retaining her friends. From every one was heard expressions of regret and sympathy Sunday when the sad news reached here. The entire community extends sympathy to her family, also to her aged grandmothers, Mesdames M. Johnson of Fentress and S. A. Johnson here.
Prairie Lea Cor. Luling Signal, March 1919 Obituary courtesy of Susie Adkins
MRS. SAM S. RICHARDSON One of the saddest deaths every chronicled in the history of Bay City and one which produced universal sorrow was that of Mrs. Ella Leah Richardson, who died at the Bay City Hospital Saturday night at 1:20 o'clock after a very brief illness as a result from a relapse of the influenza. She leaves a husband, broken in grief and sorrow and two small children. The funeral services were held in the Methodist Church this afternoon, after which interment took place in Cedarvale Cemetery. Decedent was born at Prairie Lea, Caldwell County, on September 22, 1894, the eldest child of George C. and Salura Johnson, both members of one of the oldest and most highly respected families of that part of Texas. Several years ago the family moved to Bay City, where deceased met Sam S. Richardson, to whom she was married on Christmas day, 1914. At her death, Mrs. Richardson was 24 years, 6 months and 1 day of age. She was a member of the Methodist Church, devoted to her religion, her husband and children. With the younger people of Bay City she was very popular and universally loved. Her quiet, pleasing disposition wherever she went or with whomsoever she mingled, and her going has proven to be one of the saddest blows Bay City has sustained. To add to the burden of sorrow our people have watched Sam and Leah in their struggles and gloried with them in their happiness. They had just acquired a new home on Avenue "G" and were preparing their little nest with light hearts and buoyant hopes of the future. They had only been in this place, just a few days when illness and death removed the sweet little wife and mother.
Under circumstances like these,
which occur so often, it seems hollow and senseless to extend
sympathy and condolence, for we cannot explain, and yet that is all
that is left those who loved Leah to give to her heartbroken and
loving husband. We can only share Sam's sorrows with him, nothing
more. We can only give him encouragement, for we cannot replace that
which God has taken from him. His broken heart we cannot heal, but
we can throw around him our saddened love and give to him a liberal
portion of it. CARD OF THANKS It is our wish to express with all possible sincerity our earnest appreciation of the noble and unselfish acts of kindness shown us during the illness and at the death of our loved one. We fell deeply a sense of gratitude which words cannot express and know that no place in the world has a more generous, true Christian for a more sympathetic citizenship than Bay City. May God bless you, all of you, whose noble deeds and acts of kindness have endeared you to us forevermore.
Mr. and Mrs. G. C. Johnson |
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Samuel Richardson Bay City—Funeral services for Samuel Scott Richardson, Jr., 81, of Bay City were to be held at 10 a. m. Tuesday at St. Paul’s Methodist Church with the Rev. Elizabeth Moreau officiating. Burial was to follow at Cedarvale Cemetery. A well-known Bay City businessman, Richardson died Sunday at Matagorda General Hospital. Born Oct. 25, 1915 to Samuel and Leah Johnson Richardson in Bay City, he was educated in schools here and graduated as an X-ray and laboratory technician from Northwest Institute of Medical Laboratory of St. Paul, Minn. When Matagorda County General Hospital opened in 1939, Richardson was in partnership with Dr. Charles Schoultz and installed the first laboratory and X-ray department. In 1949, he went into the jewelry business with his father, Samuel S. Richardson Sr., at Secrest Jewelers, Bay City’s oldest family-owned and operated business. A lifelong Methodist, Richardson helped organize and charter St. Paul’s Methodist Church. Through the years he held many church offices and was a member of the finance committee at the time of his death. Richardson was a member of Bay City Masonic Lodge No. 865, was a 32nd degree Scottish Rite and a member of the Gulf Cost Shrine Club and Arabia Temple of Houston. In addition, he was a life and charter member of Matagorda Chapter 35 of the Sons of the Republic of Texas, where he served as chaplain for many years. He was also a Melvin Jones Recipient, Crippled Children’s Camp life member and life member and chaplain of Bay City Lions Club and a member of The Gideons. He was preceded in death by his wife of 56 years, Anne Martin Richardson and a brother, Dr. Gordon E. Richardson. Richardson is survived by two daughters, Gayle Sue Sukes and Pamela Richardson, both of Bay City, five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Pallbearers were Jimmy Reiger, Johnny Sykes, Marshall Sykes, Kiff “Doc” Frankson, Jimmy Jones and Nouhad Mamoun. Honorary pallbearers were members of the Bay City Lions Club and Sons of the Republic of Texas. Services were under the direction of Dick R. Elkins Bay City Funeral Home. Daily Tribune, June 22, 1997 Anne Martin Richardson Anne Martin Richardson passed away Wednesday, June 19 at Matagorda General Hospital. Richardson was born on April 15, 1921 in Rosenberg, but was a long time resident of Bay City where she owned and operated Secrest Jewelers with her husband Scott. She was an active member of St. Paul’s United Methodist Church and a member of the United Methodists Womens Society of Christian Service. She also served on the board of The American Cancer Society. Richard is survived by her husband Samuel Scott Richardson of Bay City; Daughters: Gayla Sue Sykes of Bay City and Pamela Penny Richardson of Bay City. She is also survived by a brother, Ewing Martin of Willis and sisters, Gloria Smith of Bay City, Sarah Gollott of Freeport and Lillie Keith of Palacios and five grandchildren. Services will be held Friday, June 21 at 2 p. m. at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church with Rev. W. A. Haskell officiating. Interment will follow at Cedarvale Cemetery. Pallbearers are Jimmie Naiser, John Cochran, Jimmy Jones, Hadley McKay, Bill Wilder, Luther Vincent and Nuhad Mamoun. Honorary pallbearers are M. C. “Doc” Frankson, James Watts, Lewis Nygard, Jim Palmer, Dr. Bryan Simons, Dr. Tom Chick and the Bay City Lions’ Club. Services are under the direction of Dick R. Elkins Bay City Funeral Home.
Daily Tribune, June 20, 1996 |
