Driving down Congress Avenue in Austin with a man with whom he worked, they spotted the man's niece walking down the sidewalk and stopped to give her a ride. That was when my dad met my mom, and they married on November 3, 1946, in a union that lasted their entire lifetime together until dad 's death in 1981. They moved into an apartment in the Oak Cliff section of Dallas, then bought a house when mom became pregnant with my older brother Junior, who died less than a day after birth due to lung and respiratory complications. Dad was always a hard working man and never failed to provide the necessities to sustain us, even in times of great financial difficulty. His only foray into the stock market resulted in being defrauded by legendary Texas conman Ben jack Cage, whose insurance company assured himself of a happy life in South America paid for by those who bought his stock. Dad never trusted insurance companies again, and that is something he passed along to his sons and daughters.

Dad was active in the Southern Baptist Church, and became a Mason when we were pre-teens. He rose to the rank of the 33rd Degree in the Scottish Rite, an organization that had its roots in the Knights Templar of 1092-1307. Both he and mother were also active in Eastern Star, an affiliate of the Masonic Order. My parents lived in oak Cliff until the ends of their lives, my mother following dad in death on January 10, 1996. They rest in peace in Grove Hill Cemetery in Dallas, along with my older brother and my still-born niece Sarah Lynn Clark, the daughter of my sister Karen and her husband Richard Lewis Clark of Missouri.