Obituary

Zeigler, Roland Scaife,Jr.

Funeral services for Roland Scaife Jr., 76, will be at 10 a.m. Monday in Grace Presbyterian Church with the Rev. Don Shepherd, former pastor, and the Rev. Connie Nieto, pastor, officiating.

Burial will be in Plainview Memorial Park by Wood-Dunning Funeral Home.

Mr. Zeigler died of natural causes Thursday afternoon, Jan. 11, 2001, at his residence.

He was born July 1, 1924, in Plainview, the great grandson of the late Swiss groceryman John p. Zeigler, who immigrated to Mobile, Ala., in 1812 and settled in Jefferson, and Mildred Zeigler.

In 1941, Zeigler graduated from Plainview High School as class valedictorian. He enrolled in Texas A&M and after the outbreak of World War II, he joined the Army Air Corps as a flight cadet. Upon graduation from flight training he was commissioned as an officer and served as a pilot, flight instructor, and B-29 copilot.

On Oct. 8, 1944, he married Frances Sophronia Crowther at Williams Army Airfield in Chandler, Ariz. She died Aug. 11, 1999.

Following the war, Zeigler returned to Texas A&M University and completed a bachelor of science degree program in aeronautical engineering. After graduation, he joined Consolidated Aircraft in Fort Worth and worked on the production of the B-36 bomber. He attained the rank of major prior to his retirement from the U.S. Air force Reserves.

In 1948, The Zeiglers, moved back to Plainview where he joined his father in a family business. He managed College Drug and the Rainbow Room restaurant before he and his wife established is own business the Camera Shop., a camera and photofinishing business, in 1950. The Zeigelers operated the photography, record and electronics store until his retirement in the early 1980s.

He was active in the property business and was a longtime civic leader in Plainview. He helped establish the city?s first United Fund, served on the Wayland Baptist University Board of Development, helped organize the Plainview Camera Club and was a longtime member of the Chamber of Commerce.

He was a former Optimist International lieutenant governor, past president of the Plainview Noon Optimist Club and was a Rotarian and member of the Texas A&M Clerk of the Session.

Survivors include a son and daughter-in-law, Gordon and Leah Zeilger of Plainview; a daughter, Susan Blackerby of Plainview; a sister, Betty Cartwright of Lewisville; and three grandchildren, Matthew Dale Blackerby and Erin Elizabeth and Kathryn Marie Zeilger, all of Plainview.

Pallbearers will be Bill Weaks, Lloyd Woods, Geoff Wells, Bob Sears, Luther Bain and Gayle Thompson.

Plainview Daily Record- Jan. 14, 2001