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Matthew Durham >
William Lindsey Durham >
Isaiah Durham >
James Clinton Durham >
James Burns Durham >
Edmond Meadows Durham > Edmond Earl
Durham |
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Married:
10
Aug 1939
by Harvey Scott,
Minister at College Church,
Abilene Christian College,
TaylCtyTX |
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Children:

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1. Reba Ann
DURHAM (b. 24 June 1940; d. 31 Jan 2002)
Children:
Notes: |
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Reba Arroyo was a Registered Nurse (RN), and worked in the medical profession
all her life. For a lot of her life, she called El Paso, TX her home.
She finally moved back to Clyde, to care for her Mother, until
her untimely death at age 61 of lung cancer. Reba loved her family and
family roots, so that gave her the title of "Family Genealogist".
She is the site author's personal inspiration. There was not a sweeter person on earth.
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2. Private
Child:
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3. Private
Children:
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1. |
Private
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2. |
Private
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3. |
Private
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2nd Marriage
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Married:
1968, TX |
Dean PATTERSON
Born: 12 July 1926,
Blair, TaylCtyTX
Died: 23 Apr 2018, Abilene, TaylCtyTX
Find-A-Grave 50190080, TX
Father: Ernest Owen PATTERSON
Mother: Mollie Rachel MELTON
First husband: Mr. CARSON |
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Dean's Sons:
Notes: |
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Earl "Bull" Durham (also known as
"Coach"), from Rotan, TX, was an outstanding athlete. He played college football.
Earl was on the roster of the very first Great Lakes Navy Football Team
in the Great Lakes area during World War II.
The following year, he was transferred to Columbia University to
administer physical fitness training for Navy officers. There he
coached a collegiate level basketball team that was undefeated. Earl
always maintained that one of this players was
Johnny Lujack, the pro quarterback for the Chicago Bears.
This team was invited to the national tournament, but the commanding
officer declined because he did not think it would look right for
service boys to beat up on civilians.
After the war, he returned to Texas and
enrolled at Abilene Christian University.
At ACC, he was listed as G/C (guard/center) and weighed in at 178 lbs. in
fall of 1938. He was the oldest member of the team.
In college, he met Elsie
L. Straley and they were married. Shortly after, Earl joined the Navy and became a physical fitness trainer for Naval Officers at Columbia University in New York City,
NY. Elsie and daughter Reba missed their "Bully" badly. So
Elsie, deciding to take a big step, left the ranch and moved up to New York
to reunite the young family.
When the war ended, they returned to Texas. Earl worked
on the family farm, but he also coached at Lohn, a nearby community. They had their second child. Earl eventually gave up farming (which he never
was crazy about) and decided on a new career as a TV repairman.
Via mail order, he taught himself the new
profession. He began to work in Abilene at TV shops. In 1962,
his third child was born.
On June 25, 1968, Earl and Elsie divorced. That same year, Earl re-married
and moved to Abilene, TX.
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Earl had a lot of nicknames:
"Coach", "E. E.", Papa Bull", and "Paw Paw".
I called him "Daddy Dink" as a child. He was most often known as "Bull
Durham". In fact it was the name of his TV Repair shop, Bull Durham TV Repair Service
in Abilene, TX. His shop resided in
various locations in Abilene. At one point he partnered with a
brother-in-law who ran
"OK Load and Pawn".
On one occasion, Earl defended the shop from
attempted robbery! Two thugs entered the shop asking about buying a
TV. Suddenly, one said, "Gimme all your money you m-----
f-----!" Dad reached behind his desk and grabbed a 3 foot 2x4. He
chased them out of the store and down South First. Local news crews
covered the exciting (well, for Abilene, anyway) story.
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Earl loved to golf, square dance and fish. He owned
a trailer that he kept at Brownwood Lake for many years, where they
love to spend time relaxing and catching bass. He is buried at Rose
Hill (Merkel) Cemetery in Taylor County, TX. -
After the divorce, Elsie went back to
nursing school. Two years later she became a Licensed Vocational
Nurse (LVN). She moved to El Paso, TX so she could be
close to her recently married daughter, Reba Ann Arroyo and help
with her two children. Her oldest son
was also in El Paso, finishing up college and starting his career. Elsie and Reba
both worked at Providence
Memorial Hospital. -
In 1975, Elsie and her youngest son
moved back to their old ranch house in Callahan Co, TX. After clearing
out all the raccoons, yellow jackets, mice and spiders, it became a
nice country home for them.
Over the years, they experienced life on the farm with many dogs, cats,
chickens, goats, and cattle. Her son attended Clyde High School just
as his brother and sister before him. He later would go to McMurry
College in Abilene, TX, where he played four years of football.
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After her son left Texas for
Pennsylvania, Elsie eventually moved in with Reba,
who had moved back to Clyde herself. They spent many happy years
together enjoying Reba's two children and their school events. -
After Reba's untimely death in 2002, Elsie moved to Pennsylvania where she lived out
the remainder of her days in the care of her two sons.
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Page Sources:
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Site author
personal experiences.
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ModLog:
Date of ModLog |
Source of Information |
Description of Changes |
27 Oct 2018 |
none |
Clean up |
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