Vernon Wright

Obituary

Vernon Alton Wright

1927-2020

I was just a smiling little boy.

- Vernon Wright, reflecting on his childhood several days before his death at 92 years.

Vernon Alton Wright died on Sunday, August 8, 2020, at home in Ingleside, Texas.  Vernon arrived in Ingleside as a smiling two-year-old boy traveling with his extended Wright family.  The family came from Whitharral, a tiny farming community situated between Levelland and Littlefield in West Texas. They traveled south because Vernon’s paternal grandfather’s health was failing and the local doctor had suggested a warmer climate.  The family targeted Ingleside because they had heard that Humble Oil would be building a refinery there.

Vernon’s immediate family - parents Homer and Beulah and brothers Lloyd and Virgil - drove from West Texas in a Model T Ford pulling a trailer. Near Snyder, Texas the trailer pulled the car backwards down an icy hill and into a ditch.  Vernon’s dad Homer decided to unload the trailer contents into the car, possibly planning to go back for the trailer later. Homer wanted to leave Beulah’s sewing machine along with other heavy items, but she would not hear of it. The machine was a wedding gift from her parents and she insisted on getting it into the car.  This proved to be a good decision because the family never returned.  Much later - and after many years of sewing service - Vernon and his wife, Dorotha, had the sewing machine fully restored, with it becoming one of their most prized possessions.

When the Homer and Beulah Wright family first arrived in Ingleside, they lived in a tourist court behind a café near the railroad tracks.  After a while, they moved to a tent, staying long enough for Homer to buy land and build a house one block off North Main Street (FM 1069) in the newly developed Nystrom addition.  This was in 1929.  That house still stands, although no one lives in it. When Vernon’s mom Beulah died, he had the water turned off, discovering that a five-dollar deposit remained along with an outstanding penalty for someone having not paid by the 20th of the month.

As Vernon grew older, he retained many fond memories of his childhood, many centered around the Ingleside Central Baptist Church.  Members of Vernon’s family were charter members and his mother attended until her death in 1992.  Many friends and extended family members attended the church as well, including Vernon’s wife Dorotha and her immediate family.  The original church building remains, although it has been remodeled and expanded multiple times. Vernon remembered attending Sunday school when the auditorium had only a dirt floor.  He also remembered when the road in front of the church - now Tiner Lane - was just two sandy ruts with grass burrs growing in the middle.  As a five- or six-year-old child, Vernon would walk barefooted down the lane.  In summer, he would walk in the sand as long as he could and then hop into the grass burrs to cool his feet.

Life in the Nystrom Wright home was lively and crowded to say the least. Not only were there the three original boys and a fourth when Vernon’s little brother Gene came along, but there also were boarders and more or less random visits by extended family members. Beulah took in ironing to make financial ends meet. Boys commonly would compete for sleeping positions in breezy areas on the floor. There was a cow and, for many years, an outhouse.  Vernon’s father Homer had cherished hunting hounds.  At intervals, neighbors and family would gather and play music in the living room.

When Vernon was eleven, he developed osteomyelitis - an infection of the bone. He became very sick, was in great pain, and was bedridden for the better part of a year. Vernon tried to keep up in school functioning remotely but ultimately had to repeat his grade. Sometimes in this period, Vernon was delirious and screamed out in fear. The family doctor came for visits but readily admitted that he didn’t know what his problem was. This was of course in the late 1930s when medical knowledge was limited.  Eventually, a health food doctor made a proper diagnosis.  At that time, Vernon couldn’t move or stand to be touched.  The doctor put Vernon on a strict vegetable diet, applied hot and cold compacts, and employed what now might be called massage therapy. Eventually, Vernon was able to get up and around.  Although Vernon recovered, his osteomyelitis experience never left him.  It deepened his sense of compassion for the suffering of others and solidified the bond he had with his parents, especially his mother. The bond with his mother is largely what kept Vernon in Ingleside for the rest of his life. Vernon’s father died young – at 48 – which left his mom to raise young Gene on her own. Beulah had stuck closely by Vernon in his time of need and Vernon determined to remain with her and his brother in theirs.

Vernon married at 21, with Dorotha being 15.  The couple built a wood frame home behind the Nystrom Wright homeplace around 1952 and raised three children there, Brenda, Rex, and Steve. This house also continues to stand, although unoccupied.  Family and friends spent countless happy hours on the property doing what people did at that time – things such as drinking coffee and iced tea, playing games (e.g., dominoes, Rook), shelling peas, shucking corn, eating watermelon, and making hand-cranked ice cream. In 1985, Vernon and Dorotha had built for them next door a new home – brick, in a more contemporary style. Dorotha’s parents moved into the frame house from the 1950’s, which created a block family compound – Vernon and Dorotha in the brick home with grandparents living in homes on two sides.  The compound became an especially active social hub, providing a natural gathering spot during summer months and holidays and few dull moments. More than once, people noted to Vernon and Dorotha that they had “over built” for their location, that they would never recover their investment if they tried to sell.  These people missed the point. Vernon and Dorotha had no intention of selling.  They were where they wanted to be and, indeed, had difficulty imagining living anywhere else.

Dorotha began showing hints of cognitive decline in her late 60s. The decline progressed into Alzheimer’s dementia and Vernon took care of her until her death in 2011.  Vernon also cared for his mother until she died at 92 and was heavily involved in caring for Dorotha’s parents until their deaths, Jim (James) and Stella Miller. Activity at the compound slowed gradually and Vernon spent many hours of his later years without the social hubbub to which he had been so accustomed through most of his life. To be sure, caring extended family, friends, and children called and visited.  However, peers passed on and folks who remained naturally gravitated to lives apart.

Vernon maintained a kind and constructive outlook until he died. He also remained cognitively sharp, for example consistently beating his sons in rounds of Rummikube until about six months prior to his death. Vernon endured hardship but always with an eye turned toward learning from the experience. He famously claimed to learn something new each day and that each new day was even better than the previous day had been.  One lesson for his children was that life is a joyous gift but not likely to ever get easy. There always will be challenges – some insurmountable – and disappointments – some crushing. It is important to stand on principle but also to examine oneself critically and adjust as needed.  Another lesson pertained to love. Vernon recognized intuitively a crucial distinction between doing for others to make one’s own life better – for example, to avoid guilt or favorably impress an observer – and doing for others to make their life better. Vernon referred to the latter as acting out of Godly love and believed that the world would be such a better place if more of us developed and acted on this concern.  Vernon’s full life stands as a faithful testament to this belief.  His overarching legacy is one of love.  The legacy captures the beauty of following the better angels of our nature and epitomizes the concept of a life well lived.

Vernon is survived by his brother Gene Wright, Ingleside, Texas; his daughter Brenda Wright Boucher, Goliad, Texas; his son Rex Wright, Austin, Texas; his son Steve Wright (Robert Shaw), Austin, Texas; his granddaughter Karen Palacios, Victoria, Texas; his grandson Reagan Davis Kelley Wright, Hoover, Alabama; his great-grandchildren Joseph and Sophia Palacios; and many other extended family members.  His 1950s wood frame home and newer contemporary brick home are situated on what is now designated Wright Avenue – with the street having been named in recognition of his family’s extended presence at this location. Vernon was preceded in death by his wife Dorotha, his parents Homer and Beulah, and his brothers, Lloyd and Virgil.

Vernon requested a modest graveside service prior to his burial.  This will be held at 11:00 am on Wednesday at the Wright family plot at Prairie View Cemetery on FM 1069 between Ingleside and Aransas Pass.  There will be visitation at Charlie Marshall Funeral Home between 9 am and 10:30 am followed by a procession to Prairie View.  Charlie Marshall will maintain a strict policy regarding masking and social distancing both in their building and at the grave site.  In light of the summer heat and humidity, family members recommend light, comfortable clothing.