Randol Bryan

Graveside services for Randol Bryan, 80, of Laneville, will be held at 2PM Wednesday, May 16, 2007, at the Laneville Cemetery with Rev. Jimmy Wood officiating. Masons from Clinton Lodge # 23 of Henderson will conduct Masonic services. Burial will follow in the Laneville Cemetery under the direction of Rader Funeral Home of Henderson. Mr. Bryan passed away Sunday, May 13, 2007, in a Tyler hospital. Mr. Bryan was born December 17, 1926, in Laneville. He attended Laneville schools and then worked for Brown and Root shipyard in Galveston. He enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1944, and completed basic training at Camp Walters in Mineral Wells. While at Mineral Wells, he volunteered for service with the 11th Airborne Division and then trained at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He then served with the Army in Japan for three years. In 1946, he worked for Falling and Pace-Leggett Drilling Companies in Houston and Maran and Frank Woods Drilling Companies in Wichita Falls. He then married Betty Joe Wade in 1947 and returned to East Texas in 1948. He worked for Todd?s Dry Dock in Galveston and then Robert M. Bass Drilling Company in Kilgore. In 1959 he attended Commonwealth College Mortuary School in Houston and graduated a licensed funeral director and embalmer in 1960. He worked for Burks-Walker-Tippit Funeral home in Tyler from 1960 to 1963 and then for Ed Caudle Funeral Home in Lindale from 1963 to 1965. He then purchased the Cothron-Taylor Funeral home in Henderson, formerly the Otis Crim-Roy Tennison Funeral Home. In 1967 the funeral home was relocated from East Main to South Marshall Street, where it eventually became Bryan Funeral Home. The business was owned and operated by the Bryan family from 1965 until 1997, when it was purchased by the ECI Corporation. During his lifetime, Mr. Bryan was a Thirty-second Degree Scottish Rite Mason and a member of Clinton Lodge # 23, the Shriners, and the Rusk County Mini Patrol. He retired from the funeral profession in 1997 and spent the remainder of his life working on his farm in Laneville, where he enjoyed restoring antique cars and farming. Survivors include son and daughter-in-law, Randy and Carole Bryan of Henderson; two sisters, Louise Richardson of Henderson and Bessie Joe Melton of Houston;Grandchildren and spouses, Kevin and Mollie Bryan of Henderson, Jeremy and Staci Bryan of Round Rock, Kim Mims of Houston, and Suzette and Sean Sutton of Tyler; eight great grandchildren and several nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his parents, Eugene and Tweedy Bryan and two brothers, C.L. Red Bryan and Eugene Bryan, sister Gertie Wood. Visitation will be from 6 to 8 PM Tuesday , May 15, at the funeral home. Pallbearers will be Wayne Sanders, John Ben Perry, David Guy, Sammy Joe Rogers, David Bryan, Buford Woolverton, and James Watkins. Memorials may be made to Shriners Cripple Children Hospitals.

Randol Bryan

December 17, 1926 - May 13, 2007