Memories of Glenn Dale "Popsy" Claybourn, (1923 - 2011)

Share a special moment from Glenn Dale "Popsy"'s life.

July 26, 2011

Dear Jan,

All the girls in high school had a crush on your dad. He used to deliver the morning paper and my dad made me go pick it up (curlers, bath robe and all). I was so afraid he would see me like that I would hide behind a big tree and wait for him to leave. I could tell you a few other things but..... We became good friends when he and I got older. He was great. We will all miss him as he was very special.

Much love,

Dale and Cal

July 12, 2011

Dear Jan and Rich,

After reading the many stories I realized that Mopsy and Popsy were special to not only our family but so many others as well. Glenn Dale was one of those rare people that had the ability to draw people to him - he was warm, compasionate with a heart of gold and a wicked sense of humor.

Joyce and I recall all the memories captured so well in Tom Brown's story except Mopsy and Popsy took us into their lives a few years earlier when I went to work for DuPont in June 1969. The Briarfield West apartments in Victoria, the evening gathering around the swimming pool, the "Monster" refrigeration system in the mall across the street ( and the empty drum of used chemicals that we made a BBQ grill from), Fossati's, jump suits, that miracle repair stuff called duct tape, Wimberly, the fifth wheel (sardines in the hub caps) and the time they visited us in PA and stayed in the camper, --- yes so many. many wonderful memories. Your father brought a lot of happiness to so many people.

We were very fortunate that Mopsy and Popsy adopted us and that we had them in our lives. Some of the very fondest memories that we and our children have are times we spent with Mopsy and Popsy.

Our love and thoughts are with you and your family.

Dwight & Joyce Bedsole

Mendenhall, PA

July 5, 2011

Uncle Glenn was a true American hero who fought for our freedom. He carried physical evidence of his sacrifice for this country the rest of his days.

I remember Uncle Glenn always wearing his jumpsuits.

When I was little he called me his "little meskin" because I would get so dark in the summer.

Uncle Glenn will be missed.

Love, Cindy

July 3, 2011

To "Popsy's" family:

I am Christy Johnson's older sister. My family and I met "Mopsy" and "Popsy" when they lived in Wimberly next door to Chris. Special times were spent sitting on their porch, chatting and watching the deer with both families when I visited. I felt like a part of Mopsy and Popsy's lives because conversations with Chris almost always included some update on Mopsy and Popsy.

We want Popsy's family to know how much we appreciate Mopsy and Popsy being surrograte grandparents to Heather, Ben and Bowen down through the years. Mopsy and Popsy being there and befriending the Johnsons has meant so much to me. I was more comfortable moving away from that area because I knew the Claybourns were there for my baby sister and her family.

May God Bless and Keep your familes,

With prayers for your wellbeing,

Bebe Jones

June 30, 2011

Dear Jan and Richard,

My former Palacios High School classmate, Edythe Dale (Crouch) Roberts, called me with the news of Glenn Dale's passing. Though the call was not the kind of news anyone wants to receive, I am very thankful that she did know this would be Important to me!

Please know that we few yet remaining classmates and friends, former students from the early 1940’s of PHS, remember Glenn Dale fondly, and we do mourn his passing. My wife, Celia, and I saw him and Gladys last at the PHS Class of 1943 Reunion in Palacios in 2003, our 60th graduation anniversary, and both appeared to be in good health and certainly in good spirits at that time. It was a delight to be with them and the several other dear friends that attended, as it has turned out-to have been, the last 1943 class reunion.

If there had been contests In our High School years for "Best Athlete", or "Most Handsome Boy", or "Most Popular Boy", Glenn Dale almost surely would have been selected for all! He was very well liked by all, with fine qualities of leadership. Too, he was a key player who significantly helped our 1942 PHS football team to become Co-Champlons of our District that year!

His military service in WWII was most commendable, and his handling of the burden of his war wounds throughout his life there after was heroic. His family has every reason to be proud of him!

We pray that his soul may rest in peace forever more in our Lord's Heavenly Kingdom, and that all of his loved ones will find peace and comfort from, and by, the support of the Lord's Holy Spirit.

Kindest personal regards.

Bob A. & Cella M. McAllster

June 29, 2011

First of all, I want to tell you how sorry I am about the loss of your dear Popsy. He was one of a kind, and I know all of you will miss him very much. He and your Mopsy were very good to me and I have always loved them. When I was a young man and living far from home, they became my adopted mom and dad.

In the memorial page you set up on-line, you asked that photographs be forwarded to you. I am attaching several photos. One goes back to a New Year's party at Briarfield West apartments in Victoria. The most recent ones were made at the Lone Star rehab hospital in Webster last Fall. There is also one that I made when I visited them in Wimberly in the Fall of 2004. My brother relocated to Bulverde for a few years, and during one of my visits there, he and I drove up to Wimberly to see them.

I first met your Popsy in September 1972. I had just graduated from the University of Houston and taken a job with DuPont in Victoria, Texas. I found a small, one-bedroom apartment at the Briarfield West apartments. Much to my good fortune, my apartment (#139, I seem to recall) was just a door or two away from your grandparents' apartment.

I reported to work on September 1, 1972, which was a Friday. That first weekend in Victoria could have been a lonely time for me. I really didn't know a soul and was feeling very isolated. I remember getting up fairly early on that Saturday, which was my custom, and making a pot of coffee. I decided to enjoy my coffee at a table out by the swimming pool. The pool was in the rear courtyard where my apartment and that of your grandparents was located. I hadn't been sitting and sipping there for very long before a friendly gentleman about my father's age came out from a nearby apartment and said that it looked like I needed a donut to go along with my coffee. He had a box of fresh donuts in his hand. That was the beginning of my almost 40-year acquaintance with two of the most wonderful people I've ever known - the Claybourn's.

I had a couple of great times camping with your grandparents. They would be in their travel trailer and I would drive down to Rockport with my tent and bicycle to join them. We had some good times.

Of course, they took several weeks of vacation every summer to pull that 5th-wheel camper to Colorado and enjoy the beauty of the Rockies around Del Norte or one of their other favorite places. Hearing them talk about it made me want to go, and I made camping trips of my own to Colorado in 1974 and 1975.

In a couple of years, I married a girl from my hometown, New Boston, Texas. Gladys and Glenn Dale fell in love with her, too. We called them "Mammy" and "Pappy." I learned that Gladys was from Tyler, which is where I have family. My dad grew up in Lindale, which is just north of Tyler and also in Smith County. My grandfather was pastor of Cedar Street United Methodist Church in Tyler when he retired in 1970. He had also been pastor at churches all around Tyler in the 1940's - Alto, Troup, and Lindale (which is how my parents met) - and he had gone to school at Lon Morris College in Jacksonville in the 1930's.

We had quite a good time at Briarfield West in those days. Most of the couples who formed a strong bond there were young newly weds like we were. But Gladys and Glenn Dale joined in and fit in so well, as did our apartment managers over that period of time - the Hays's and the Strieber's, also older than the rest of us. There were many evenings of sitting around outside and "chewing the fat." We all tried to go out to eat somewhere one night a week. Often we would have 15-20 people go out to Fossati's, a Mexican restaurant, a BBQ place, or any of a number of other local haunts. We ALWAYS had a good time. I remember that we laughed - a lot.

Your Popsy was plagued with the operation of "The Monster" - the huge absorption refrigeration system for the mall across the street that he operated for so many years. But I really think being at the mall was a great thing for him. You know how he loved people, and I think he made the rounds over there - especially at the barber shop that was in the mall. I think he knew everybody. And what a great wit he had about him.

The oil embargo hit in the mid-1970's. The federal government pressured all the states to lower their maximum speed limit to 55 mph. In Texas, it had formerly been 70 mph. Your grandfather and I had a running argument about whether this saved gasoline or not. He hard-headedly argued that the faster one drove, the faster one reached their destination and therefore, the car would use less fuel. Being the engineer, I tried to explain about friction and how it went up by the square of the velocity (i.e., double the speed and quadruple the friction forces), and all of that sort of stuff - to no avail, of course. Years later, I had the sudden realization that your Popsy probably DID understand but he carried on with all of that just to irritate me! ha.

Just before Thanksgiving of 1976, I was transferred by DuPont to Wilmington, Delaware. We hated to leave Victoria and your grandparents. As a matter of fact, they would NOT say goodbye to us. They said they couldn't handle it, and told us when we were packed and ready to go, to just get in the car and leave. They asked us not to come by to say that last goodbye. It would have been a tearful and gut-wrenching time, for sure. It was a sad day when we moved away. To this day, I have remained in contact with several people whom I came to know and love at Briarfield - among them were your grandparents, J.W. & Jan Rouse, and Pat & Linda Janecek. Others who were part of the group included Richard & Pat Linney who relocated to Corpus Christi and Buddy & Sandra Billups who still reside on North Liberty Street in Victoria. And there were others, too.

I believe your great-grandmother, Popsy's mother from Palacios, had moved to Briarfield West before our departure.

I recall you and your sister visiting at times during the summers. When my wife and I had a daughter of our own in 1981, we helped her call my parents Mopsy and Popsy because we thought those were such special names. I hope you and your sister don't mind that we borrowed those special names. My parents were a good Mopsy and Popsy and in no way discredited the name. Both of my parents are deceased now, and unfortunately my wife and I are no longer married.

Your grandparents' marriage and their devotion to one another was such a wonderful thing to behold - truly an example for all of us.

Over the years, I stayed in touch with your grandparents. I didn't get to see them very often, but when I did, it was just like old times. I had the pleasure of visiting them a few times in Wimberly. We exchanged Christmas cards every year. And your grandparents would phone occasionally, never talking for very long. Neither one was much for chatter over the telephone. Your Popsy called me just a few weeks before his passing to let me know he was at the rehab hospital and to thank me for a card I had sent him.

I loved your Mopsy and Popsy and it saddens me so much to think that they are physically gone from our lives. We all know they are in a better place and no longer have to suffer the things that caused them physical pain at the end of their days. But I miss them, and I know that you and your family certainly do. I think it is for ourselves really that we grieve. I hope to see them again some day in another world and another place.

But I do know that I am richer for having known them and I thank God for that and for bringing them into my life. They were "salt of the earth" people and part of The Greatest Generation. You and your sister are very lucky to have had such wonderful grandparents, and you seem to realize that. And a part of your grandparents lives on in the two of you. What a legacy!

In closing, I offer the poem copied below and also printed on the attached PDF document. Please share it with your parents and your sister. Thanks.

My deepest sympathies to you and your family,

Tom Brown

Aiken, South Carolina

My Popsy

June 24, 2011

My Popsy...an amazing grandfather and role model. He fought and was injured for our freedom, lived a modest but full life, made everyone laugh and smile, was very generous and caring. He traveled all over the country sharing a bit of his wisdom and charm with each person he met...and few questionable jokes along the way. He led by example with a marriage lasting 64 years. He nicknamed me Wall-Doe, and DoeRowe (The Irony of that...since I'm a Rowe now), he took us tubing in Wimberley and down the to "concrete pond" in the summer. He often told me and Samy to "Spread Out" when we argued...and that's all he had to say. He said "Pardon me Boy" after he burped. He played upwords with Mopsy..we were never sure who really won. He fixed things with WD-40 and Duct Tape, and hung pictures with velcro. He LOVED John Wayne, and got choked up when "O Holy Night" was sung at church. He spoke of jitterbugging with my Grandmother back in the day, what I would have given to see that. He enjoyed a couple of beers, and "Two Fingers" (or was it Three?) of whiskey at night before he went to bed. I will never forget us sneaking Popsy a beer in the skilled nursing home for his birthday (I think)..we wrapped it in tissue paper and put a flower on top..looked like his darling great-granddaughter had made him a gift. haha. He always wore jumpsuits, even to my wedding..almost always had a baseball cap on. He often fell asleep after we had a family meal, and while we sat around and talked he would add in a snore here and there...but most of all, he loved us all, unconditionally. I love you Popsy. I love every bit of who you were.

Love, Dona

Samy's Facebook Post

June 24, 2011

Heaven has another angel today…my grandfather “Popsy.” He made the final trip with his travel trailer & boy, what a view he has. I’m sure that he & Mopsy are already playing a game of Upwards. Save the spot next to you guys for the day I pull in, put out my awning & carpet grass. I’ll bring the Bud! Love ya!!!

Samy 6/23/11

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