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Submitted: 10/29/23 • Approved: 10/29/23 • Last Updated: 11/1/23 • R251420-G251420-S3
James
Dec. 27, 1911 - Nov. 16, 2003
Jonnie
Mar. 26, 1911 - Dec. 23, 1997
Married Sept. 11, 1953
Kerrville Daily Times (TX) - Friday, November 21, 2003
KERRVILLE - James Pressly House, 91, of Kerrville, passed away Sunday, Nov. 16, 2003, in a Kerrville hospital. He was born to John Pressly House and Maggie Burns House on Dec. 27, 1911, in Silverdale, Tenn.
Mr. House received the Springfield Medal his sophomore year at Tyner High School in Hamilton County, Tenn., and graduated as valedictorian of his senior class.
He came to the Rio Grande Valley of Texas during the depression in 1933 and worked at Edna, Port Lavaca and Victoria for 25 cents an hour for a year and a half. Mr. House then worked his way through college from 1934-1939 at the University of Texas in Austin. During his freshman year, he was a member of Phi Eta Sigma and the Honorary Scholastic Society. He received honors in Phi Eta Sigma his sophomore year, Chi Epsilon his junior year, and was selected for membership in the Civil Engineering Scholastic Society and the Tau Beta Pi All-Engineering Scholastic Society.
According to Mr. House, when he graduated from UT as a civil engineer, jobs were "scarce as hens' teeth," so he took a job in the Louisiana swamps on a surveying crew among alligators, snakes and cypress trees. Just three months later an opportunity came to work with Texaco on a seismograph crew in Colombia, South America. He was employed there for 15 years. He was then transferred to Mobile, Ala., where he met and married his beloved wife, Johnnie Fortenberry House, in 1953. They were transferred to North Dakota for three years, then to West Denver, where he worked until he retired in 1975 and moved to Kerrville.
Johnnie House preceded him in death in 1997.
He is survived by his nephews, Randal H. House of San Antonio and Dr. Roy F. House of Rochester, Minn.; nieces, Nancy Billingsley and Jane Braswell of Comfort and Peggy Roberts of Washington, W.Va.; and great-nieces, Gayle Dixon and Pamela Varnell of Chattanooga, Tenn.
A graveside memorial service will be at a later date in Silverdale, Tenn.
The family invites you to send condolences at www.grimes funeralchapels.com by selecting the "Send Condolences" link.
Funeral arrangements are entrusted to Grimes Funeral Chapels of Kerrville.
Contributed on 10/29/23 by deedriam2002
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Record #: 251420