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Philip M. Bowie, a prominent planter of the Caney valley, and native of this county, died suddenly of heart disease at his home Sunday morning last. Mr. Bowie's only son, Hubert W., with his wife had on Saturday come to town visiting the family of their uncle Harris Bowie. Mr. Bowie entertained his clerk, Mr. LaBody, at his home that night for a while, and after the clerk left retired. Next morning the colored housekeeper went to call Mr. Bowie to breakfast, and receiving no response, opened his door and found him lying on the floor dead. It appears that he was attacked in the early morning with heart trouble, and starting to the door to call some one, fell dead just inside the door. Mr. Bowie had been in delicate health several months, but had not supposed the trouble was with his heart. Deceased was about 57 years of age, being born on Caney, his parents coming to this county from Dallas county, Ala., in 1850. Mr. Bowie was married in 1889 to Miss Bert Welserger [Weisiger] who died at the birth of the son. Mr. Harris Bowie a brother, and son Hubert and wife, are his only survivors; another brother, George M., was one of the Capt. Rugeley company of Confederates who died in the disaster to the expedition across Matagorda Bay in defense of Matagorda, December 31, 1863, when about thirty [22] of the company perished in the vessel wrecked by the severe gale and blizzard. The remains were interred in the old family burial ground near the home at Cedar Lane, Sunday afternoon.
The Matagorda County News and Midcoast Farmer, Tuesday, September
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James Gibbons Corbett
died
in Houston on April 29, 2010 at the age of 90 of old age. He was born at
home in Bay City, Texas, October 14, 1919, and attended local schools
until the 8th grade. He grew up in a family that valued education and
encouraged travel and an intellectual curiosity about the world. His
parents were John Michael Corbett, a local judge and attorney for the
Texas Gulf Sulphur Co., the son of Irish immigrants, and Nancy Wilson
Duncan, a New York trained artist and the daughter of a ranching family
in Egypt, Wharton County, Texas. The family lived in a large white
Mediterranean style house near the town square. Jim attended Woodberry
Forest School in Virginia, and Princeton University where he majored in
geological engineering. An outstanding multi-event track-and-field
athlete, he was Virginia State Champion in the broad jump in 1937, and
captain of his team. He competed against the world's best pole vaulters
at Madison Square Garden, and trained with the Olympic Club in San
Francisco after college. A track-and-field fan his whole life, he was a
spectator at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin with his brother and sister,
and at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles with his children. When World
War II began, Jim was in the San Francisco Bay area, which he loved and
returned to many times. After completing a masters degree in petroleum
engineering at Stanford University, he joined the Army Air Corps and
went to India, an experience that opened his eyes to the richness of the
world. By accurately predicting an unseasonable storm in his first days
on the job, he earned a reputation as an ace forecaster. He maintained a
lifelong interest in the weather. After the war Jim worked in the oil
industry in the Los Angeles area where he met Nancy Bynum. They were
married October 29, 1948, and lived in Long Beach before moving to Texas
to a series of oil company towns. In the mid-1950s Jim went to work at
the Bank of Commerce in Houston under the glowing weatherball in the
green Conoco Building, and later at the Texas National Bank of Commerce
in the Gulf Building. Jim and Nancy had four children. The family made
many weekend drives to see his parents in Bay City, and had formal mid
day dinners in a shaded house cooled by an attic fan in the days before
air conditioning. In a car filled with cigar smoke and the live opera
broadcast from New York, they visited the family farm and his uncles on
their ranches in Wharton County. They made many trips to Galveston for
the day or to stay in the Buccaneer Hotel and feed the seagulls from the
seawall piers. For summer vacations, he packed the family in a station
wagon for two weeks of daily marathon geography lessons, staying in a
mix of cheap motels, tent cabins, and grand resorts and hotels that
reflected his ease with all levels of society. An enthusiastic teacher,
he took the family to New Mexico, Mesa Verde, and Yellowstone, where he
imparted his love of nature, and to Washington, New York, and Boston for
exposure to the great museums and monuments. Later, he took individual
children skiing, bird watching, and wandering in the car. He went to work
on his own in 1965 as an investor and as a manager of Green Acres, a
Wharton County farm bought by his grandfather in 1899 and given to him
and his brother Duncan by their mother. The Corbett brothers raised
cattle and grew cotton and corn during a period when the rural economy
and farming methods changed dramatically from small tenant farmers to
big, highly mechanized operations. In his retirement and after his
divorce, he traveled to visit children, grandchildren, and friends, and
attended the Stanford Alumni Summer School. He continued to play tennis
as he had all his life until past 80. When an occasional doubles
partner, George H. W. Bush, an admittedly better player, acted like his
commander in chief on the court, it annoyed him, illustrating his
life-long preference for doing things his own way. In these years he was
named Dito by a grandchild (from Abuelito), the last of many names he
was given after Teenie, Gibbons, and Jim. Jim was an introspective man
who quoted poetry and passed on to his children his curiosity about the
world and his interests in everything you might read about in the
newspapers.In his last few years, as his health was failing, his
daughter Wendy devoted herself to his care. She always honored his
wishes and made sure he was comfortable and safe. Jim is survived by his
children and their spouses Michael, (Mary Hardy) of Berkeley,
California; Kitty (Craig Janes) of Vancouver, British Columbia; Wendy of
Houston; and Mary Ainslie (Peter Simione) of Houston; grandchildren Anna
and John Corbett, Enessa and Janice Janes, and Connor and Julia Simione;
his sister Kitty King Powell; his ex-wife Nancy Leibrock; his nieces and
nephews Duncan Corbett, Ginger Carrington Corbett, Nancy Powell Moore,
Marian Powell Harrison, Benjamin Powell, and Katherine Powell Hill and
their families .A memorial service will be held at St. John the Divine
at a future date; see maryainslie.info. He will be buried at Cedar Lane
in Matagorda County. For additional information see the Wharton
Journal-Spectator. |
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Clyde Louis Pray, Jr., 85, of Cedar Lane passed away November 25, 2019. He was born September 10, 1934 in Houston, TX to the late Clyde Louis Pray, Sr. and Maybelle Delores Birmingham Pray. Clyde served his country in the U.S. Army. He later had a part of the planning and development of the Matagorda Birding and Nature Center. In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by his sister Betty Jean Johnson and son-in-law Jack Allen Nash. Survivors include his wife Sally Bowie Pray; daughters Sandra Pray Wellen & husband Steve and Catherine Delores Pray Nash; son Clyde Louis Pray III & wife June; 9 grandchildren; 18 great grandchildren and 2 great-great grandchildren. The family will receive friends and relatives from 5PM until 7PM Friday, November 29, 2019 at Taylor Bros. Funeral Home. Graveside service will be 2:00 PM Saturday, November 30, 2019 at the Bowie Cemetery in Cedar Lane.
Taylor Bros. Funeral Home |
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Sally Beth Bowie Pray, 86, of Cedar Lane, TX, passed away January 17, 2022. She was born April 12, 1935, in Matagorda County to Phillip M. Bowie and Tommie Benton Bowie. Sally went to school in Houston, TX and attended Jeff Davis High School where she met her husband, Clyde. They married after graduation and were joyfully together for 66 years. She was a very social person and loved by everyone that met her. She remained close to her church and faith though out her life. Sally will be deeply missed by her family and friends. Sally is preceded in death by her parents, and husband Clyde Pray, Jr. She is survived by 2 daughters: Sandra Wellen & husband Steve, and Catherine Nash; son: Clyde Pray III & wife June; 2 brothers: Ronald P. Bowie & wife Joetta, and Michael L. Bowie & wife Laura; 9 grandchildren, 19 great-grandchildren and 2 great-great grandchildren. A Graveside Service will be held 3:00 PM Saturday, January 22, 2022, at Bowie Cemetery with Rev. Mike Patterson officiating. Pallbearers will be: Chad Lakin, Steve Wellen, Norman Pocs, Jackie Fretwell, Daniel Wellen, Clyde Pray IV, Clyde Pray V and James McNelis. If you would like to make a donation in lieu of flowers, please consider Parkinson’s Foundation at Parkinson.org.
Taylor Bros. Funeral Home |
