Ronny and I started dating in
High School and dated for the next seven years.
After graduation he served active duty for two years
in the U.S. Navy. When he came home, we got married
on July 13,1963 after my graduation from UT. He was
manager of Dale’s Auto Parts. We started our family
in 1965 with our daughter Tami and in 1968 our other
daughter Lissa was born. They were the apples of
our eyes and still are. In 1972 we opened Ronny’s
Auto Parts and one year later opened Dripping
Springs Auto Parts. After 14 years he retired.
Many of his customers and employees became our life
long friends.
One of the most important part of
our lives began when our daughters got married -
Tami to Richard Scott and Lissa to John Bentley. He
was very proud of their choices. They gave us our
wonderful grandsons Cody, Brandon and Cameron.
Besides the three women in his life, he adored our
three grandsons, and the feeling was mutual. He was
their hero.
Tami and Lissa surprised us on our
40th anniversary with a fifties party, and even
Elvis came. It was fabulous!!
Ronny was a “people” person and
decided he wanted to work part time by driving for
Enterprise. He absolutely loved this job and could
hardly wait to go to work on Monday morning. His
most important job was to make coffee for all the
employees.
One of his favorite things to
do was join family and friends at different
Austin venues to listen to live music. He
loved going to Hill’s on Friday night to
listen to Sam Bentley, Evangelines on Monday
night for Cajun music and anyplace where
Kevin Fowler was playing; he felt very
“special” when Kevin put us on his guest
list. Another favorite hobby was to visit
the Bowie farm where his grandson, Cody was
in FFA and raised a pig and a steer. He
was called the "Security Guard", at the
farm.
He was also very close to his
brothers, Monte and Gary and his sisters
Nancy and Peggy and all of their children.
Ronny was diagnosed with
cancer in March, 2008, had surgery and went
through 31 radiation treatments, along with
chemo. His treatment was very painful and
took its toll on him. We celebrated our
45th wedding anniversary in the hospital,
and his nurses came in singing with a cake.
He put up a very brave fight, but developed
pneumonia and died on July 25, 2008.
We miss him terribly, and
many tears are still shed. I am grateful
for our love and all of the wonderful years
and memories. I try to focus on not what we
have lost, but the many happy years we had
with him.
