Dallas Co. TX - Obits: James Rayburn Hale
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Thursday, April 29, 2004

Amarillo
James Rayburn Hale

James Rayburn Hale, 88, of Amarillo died Tuesday, April 27, 2004.

Services will be at a later date. Arrangements are by Schooler-Gordon Funeral
Directors, 5400 S. Bell St.

Mr. Hale was born in 1915 in Gober to William Love Hale and Annie Mae Hopwood.
The family moved to Lorenzo when he was a year old and then moved to Lubbock
in 1927. James graduated from Lubbock High School in 1934. He then attended
Texas Tech University for two years. In 1936, he married his high school
sweetheart, Sybil Theodora McLarry. They lived in Lubbock until the birth of
their daughter, Karen Sue, in 1942. Then they moved to Dallas where Rayburn
worked at North American Aircraft. After the war, he joined Southwest Wheel
Inc., in Dallas, but in 1949, he transferred to Memphis, Tenn., with the
compnay.

Rayburn and his family then returned to Dallas in 1957 and settled in the
University Park Area. At this time, Rayburn founded Prior Gaskets Inc., where
he was vice-president until his retirement. The family were members of
University Park United Methodist Church, where their daughter, Karen Sue,
married William Allen Vandivere in 1965. After the death of Sybil, Rayburn
moved to Amarillo to the Craig Methodist Retirement Community to he near Karen
Sue and his family. He was a member of Sons of the Republic of Texas, Maxwell
Society, Sons of the Confederacy, Sons of the American Revolution and Texas
Society War of 1812.

He was preceded in death by his wife in 1998; his older brother, William Love
Varnell; his twin brother, Robert Haven Hale; and an infant brother, James
Presley.

Survivors include a daughter, Karen Sue; a granddaughter, Amy Diane Vandivere;
a grandson, Allen Hale Vandivere; a niece, Diedra Hunnicutt; and two nephews,
Gary Hale and William Varnel Hale II.

The family suggests memorials be to Lake Highlands UMC of Dallas or St. Paul
UMC in Amarillo.

Amarillo Globe-News, April 29, 2004
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