Obituary

Funeral services for George Roy Frye, 89, of Plainview will be at 10 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2005, at Bartley Memorial Chapel with Bently Gwynn of Prairie House Hospice officiating. Burial will be in Plainview Memorial Park under the direction of Bartley Funeral Home. Mr. Frye died at 11:50 p.m., Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2005, at Prairie House Living Center. Visitation will be from 6-7 p.m. Monday at Bartley Funeral Home. George Roy Frye, the youngest son of Roy J. and Mamie Bolin Frye, was born May 28, 1916, in Plainview, Texas, where he resided his entire life. As a boy, he was a talented baseball player and one newspaper report describes him as a "brilliant shortstop." During the Great Depression, he worked many different jobs until he began employment for The Plainview Herald in 1932 sweeping out the back shop, cleaning the Linotypes, and rising early to light the lead pots for the hot metal Linotype machines. He married Gladys Adelle Lindsey in 1938 in Lubbock, Texas. At the newspaper, he worked his way up and became a talented and broadly experienced Linotype operator. He worked there with several members of his family, including his nephew Joe Billy, who worked on the press until suffering an injury and also delivered a paper route continuously for 52 years; George's older brother, Walter, who retired as production manager after almost 55 years of service; and Walter's grandson, Kirk Gaither, who has worked at The Herald for 25 years. George labored faithfully for 52 years before retiring in 1984, the year his youngest son, Danny Ray Frye, succumbed to cancer. He enjoyed travel, especially trips to Canada with his family and his sister, Mattie Bell Witten, and her husband, Simp. He loved sports, teaching his sons tennis and baseball skills in particular, and coaching in Little League; if asked, he would say that his sons' athletic skills were "not bad." Survivors include his wife of 67 years, Gladys Adelle Lindsey Frye; sons, Dr. Jerry K. Frye and his wife, Nanette Pullen Frye, of Nacogdoches, and Dr. Bob J. Frye and his wife, Alice Swanner Frye, of Fort Worth; grandchildren Barry Frye of Plainview; Brenda Frye Faxel and her husband, Ralph, and children Sarah Elizabeth and Drew Edward Faxel of Friendswood; Cindy Frye Collins and her husband, Chuck, and their children John and Mattie Collins of Knoxville, Tenn.; brother, Walter Frye, of Plainview; and several nieces and nephews. The family requests memorials to the Prairie House Living Center Hospice program in lieu of flowers