Weldon Uzzell (Hartville)'s Obituary
Brosig Weldon Uzzell passed from this life in Rocky Ridge Manor, Mansfield, Missouri on November 21, 2012, to join his loving wife Lorine and daughter Elaine Silva. Also preceding him in death were his three brothers, Dale, Red, and Howard Uzzell, and one great-grandchild.
Born February 3, 1915 to Ervin and Lucy Milliorn Uzzell; Weldon went on to live a very adventurous life. He rode to the Texas panhandle with his family in a covered wagon. As a teenager, he rode to California from Texas in a train boxcar. Returning to Texas to work on his uncle Earl Milliron’s Ranch, he met and married Lorine Harris. They soon returned to California where he worked in a shipyard, picked fruit, and logged trees in Washington State. He began his construction career in the early 1940’s, working as a foreman on the Chacuma Dam project and superintendent on the Little Sir Bridge. While in California, he purchased a gas station in Santa Cruz and at a later date a grocery store and trucking business in Caruthers, all the while building. After semi-retiring in his late 50’s, he and Lorine moved back to Oplin, Texas where they first met. He not only built their home, he built others in the area as well as being instrumental in remodeling the old Oplin School House into the present community center.
The last house he built was in Hartville, Missouri, next to his son and family. He did most of the work, including all the cabinets, at the age of 80.
Traveling with Lorine, fishing and playing with his grandchildren were the highlights of his life. He and Lorine were married for sixty-four years before her death in 1998. They had visited forty-nine different states including two trips to Alaska to fish and camp out with friends.
Weldon is survived by his daughter Wanda Gilman and husband Bill of Ava, Missouri; son, Dennis Uzzell and wife Pat of Hartville, Missouri; eleven grandchildren; thirty great-grandchildren; thirty-six great- great-grandchildren; a niece, and nephew; three cousins of which Clarence and Sue Milliorn were like a son and daughter-in-law to him.
He was a member of the Mansfield Church of Christ at the time of his death.
Funeral services will be held at 10:00 a.m., Saturday, December 1, 2012 in the Bailey Howard Funeral Home, Clyde Texas. Burial will follow in the Oplin Cemetery. Visitation will be from 6-8:00 p.m. Friday, November 30, 2012 in the funeral home. Pallbearers will be his grandsons, Shawn Nuckels, Daron Uzzell, Will Uzzell, Wayne Flickenger, Jim Silva and Jessie Silva. Pastor James Poe of the Oplin Baptist Church will officiate.
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