Obituary

Funeral services for James Taylor Bryant, 92, of Ruidoso, formerly of Plainview, will be at 2 p.m. Friday in Lemons Memorial Chapel with the Eddy Curry, minister of education at First Baptist Church, officiating. Burial will be in Plainview Memorial Park by Lemons Funeral Home. Mr. Bryant died Sunday, Feb. 13, 2005, in Ruidoso. He was born March 3, 1912, in Middleburg, Ky., the son of William C. and Belle Bryant. He graduated from McKinney, Ky., high school in 1931 and received a bachelor's degree from Eastern Kentucky State in 1936. He taught seven years in Kentucky before moving to Texas in 1939. He was principal and football coach in Ovalo, Texas, from 1939-41, superintendent and coach in Noodle from 1942-44, superintendent in Hermleigh ISD from 1944-46, superintendent at Wellman ISD from 1946-57, and principal at Plainview schools from 1957-76. He was a member of the Masonic Lodge and First Baptist Church in Plainview. He married Geneva Carrier on June 7, 1934, in Burgin, Ky. She died in May 1995. Survivors include two sons, William Roger Bryant of Odessa and James Leslie Bryant of Ruidoso; a daughter, Joyce Lynn Davies of Ruidoso; eight grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren. His parents, and a brother, Charles Bryant, also are deceased.