Obituary

Masters, Everett Edison

Masonic graveside services for Everett Masters, 90, will be at 2:30 p.m. today in Center Plains Cemetery at Cotton Center with the Rev. Ava Berry, United Methodist Church district superintendent of Plainview, officiating.

Burial arrangements are by Wood-Dunning Funeral Home.

Mr. Masters died at 1:25 p.m. Friday, Aug. 29, 2003, in Covenant Hospital Plainview.

He was born July 13, 1913, in Pond Creek, Okla., the sixth of 12 children of William Newton and Fannie Lula Mayo Masters.

He moved to the Cotton Center area. He was a stock farmer and operated a fertilizer business and was one of the first to drill irrigation wells on the plains. He farmed for nearly 30 years and operated land in the Center Plains community known as Mayfield Farms. He also owned and operated a blacksmith shop in Hale Center in the 1940s and 1950s.

He served as president of the Hale County Farm Bureau, was instrumental in founding the Hale County Farm and Ranch Museum, serving as president for many years. In 1935, he and 10 others organized Center Plains Methodist Church, which later became Cotton Center United Methodist Church . He taught Sunday school for more than 60 years.

He was on the board for the Council on Ministers and founder of Cotton Center Methodist Men, PLainview District Methodist Men and Center Plains Cemetery Association.

He was past worshipful master of Hale Center Masonic Lodge, advisor for 4-H and FFA clubs and a member if Hale County Historic Society.

He was named Hale Center's Man of the year in 1983 and was named first Poineer Man of the Plains during the 75th annual Poineer Round-up in Plainview in May.

He helped found the Boys Ranch Division of the Methodist Home at Waco.

He was a 32nd degree Scottish Rite Mason and was past master of Lemond Lodge #832 AF&AM in Hale Center where he received the Golden Trowel and 50-year member awards.

In 1934, he married Melba Bandy. She died in 1961. In 1964, he married Florence Fisher.

After the death if his first wife, he organized the Melba Bandy Masters medical clinic for Myasthenia Gravis patients at the Hi-Plains Hospital in 1962.

Survivors include his wife; a son, Wesley Will Masters of Cotton Center; four stepchildren, James Wilson of Wylie, Marvin Wilson of Amarillo, Mary Ethel Henry of east Barnard amd Jean Wilson of Canyon; three sisters, Gladys Hail of Hale Center, Fern Shollenbarger of Fresno, Calif., Francis Ketron of Richmond, Ind.; three brother-in-law. Warren Driver of Brownwood, J.W. Bandy of Seagraves and George Wallace of Fresno, Calif.; 22 grandchildren; 33 great-grandchildren; and a lot of nieces and nephews.

Sons deceased are Jesse Everett Masters, who died in 1969 and E.C. Wilson, who died in 1960. Five brothers, Kenneth Masters, Jess Masters, Tom Masters, Edgar Masters and Roy Masters; three sisters, Florence Fenn, Ethel Driver and Zola Lovell; and four nephews also deceased.

The family suggests memorials to Myasthenia Gravis Foundation. NW Texas Chapter, P.O. Box 1148, Leveland, TX 79336, or to Center Plains Cemetery, Rt 1, Hale Center, TX 79041

Plainview Daily Herald- Aug. 31, 2003