Obituary

Graveside services for M.O. Stapleton, 90, will be at 2 p.m. Tuesday in Plainview Memorial Park with the Rev. Don Robertson, pastor of College Heights Baptist Church, officiating. Burial arrangements are by Cox Funeral Home of Amarillo. Mr. Stapleton died Sunday, Nov. 21, 2004. He was born Sept. 17, 1914, in Tidwell, the son of Thomas Lee and Eula Bell Johnson Stapleton. He and his family moved to the Texas Panhandle soon after as part of a covered wagon train. As a young man he bought and sold mules to be used as teams for plowing. He was a member of the original Hale County Sheriff's Posse and he rode in many parades on his palomino, Buck, leading the Hale County Sheriff's Posse with his brothers, Howard and Shelby, throughout the United States. He was a blacksmith, welder and general contractor. He owned and operated Stapleton Construction for 46 years and designed and built many of the farm and ranch implements used in the 1950s and 1960s. He later enjoyed making metal art and cooking for his family on his patio cooker he designed. He was a member of College Heights Baptist Church. Survivors include three sons, Quien Stapleton of Amarillo, Max Stapleton of Haskell and Louis Stapleton of Grove, Okla.; six grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren. His parents; wife, Iris; four brothers; six sisters; and one grandchild are deceased. The family will receive friends at the church from 10 a.m.-noon. Tuesday and suggest memorials to College Heights Baptist Church Building Fund, 802 Quincy, Plainview, TX 79072.