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Family of Larry "Joe" Reynolds |
 Larry Joe, the first child of Joe Duagan Reynolds and Sallie Loretta Dawson, was born at home in Caddo Mills, Hunt County, Texas on Tuesday, June 19, 1945. Larry was a very small baby, he weighed only 5 pounds and 0 ounces and was 1 foot, 6 inches long. Larry Joe was raised and educated in Greenville, Hunt county and Mt. Pleasant, Titus county, Texas. At the age of seventeen he dropped out of school in the ninth grade and enlisted into the United States Army on March 27, 1963. Larry Joe spent twenty one years in the Army, earning his bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration during his spare time, and retiring at the rank of Master Sergeant. His primary duties while in the military was that of a Nuclear Weapons Specialist and then an Army Recruiter and Recruiting First Sergeant. During his enlistment he was able to visit all 50 states and 37 different countries. Among his highest achievements was the Army Achievement Medal, three awards of the Army Commendation Medal, two awards of the Meritorious Service Medal and the Gold Recruiting Badge with three Stars Sapphire. While stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas he met and married Julia Marie Champ, the daughter of Ernest Dean Champ and Alice Marie Wells. Julie was born on September 15, 1948, in Junction City, Geary County, Kansas. They were married in Mt. Pleasant, Titus county, Texas at the Old Union Baptist Church on December 26th, 1966, by Rev. Brother James N. Bell, Jr. Julia gave birth to their first child, Lawrence Joseph Reynolds, II on May 9, 1968, in Cleveland, Cuyahoga county, Ohio, while Larry Joe was stationed with the Army in Turkey as a Nuclear Weapons Specialist. Lawrence was over a month old before Larry got the letter telling of his birth and almost three months old before his father got to see him upon his return from Turkey. Their second child, Angela Marie Reynolds was born in Arlington, Tarrant county, Texas on November 11th, 1971 where her father, Larry Joe was stationed as a U.S. Army Recruiter. The day she was born Larry Joe was involved with a recruiting promotion where he had the U.S. Army Motorcycle team perform in the town. The headlines of the Arlington Newspaper read, for November 11th, the date of her birth, "Staff Sergeant Joe Reynolds welcomes Army Easy Riders to Arlington". After retirement from the Army Larry Joe worked for several companies in the Arlington area. He was the Executive Vice-President of Great Southwest Builders & Supply, Inc. of Grand Prairie, Texas when he left the private sector and went to work for the State of Texas with the Texas Department of Human Services in Mt. Pleasant, Texas. He had only been with the Texas Department of Human Services for 13 months when he was selected to take over as Supervisor of the office in Canton, Texas. After fourteen months he was transferred back to Arlington, Texas to take over the office there. After five years with the Department of Human Services, he once again returned to the private sector. Joe left the Department of Human Services to go to work for the Texas Employment Services where he was employed as Computer/Network Specialist with the East Texas Workforce Centers in Longview, Texas. On March 9, 2010, Joe returned home from work and found Julie passed out on the floor, she was air-lifted to Tyler, Texas by helicopter, where she passed away due to a massive stroke on March 14th. Julie is buried in the Old Union Cemetery in Mount Pleasant, Texas. I really need to switch to first person in order to finish this. In August of that year I received a phone call and when I answered a woman asked if I was Joe Reynolds, I said yes and she asked "Are you the Joe Reynolds who was an Army Recruiter in Arlington?", again I said yes and she said, "You probably don't remember me, this is Keesie Jenkins." I told her that of course I remembered her. (Her husband, Gerry Jenkins and I were both recruiters in a two man recruiting station for around 4 years. They lived in the same Apartment complex as we did and we were great friends, going out together, playing cards and each others house, her and Julie were best friends, and when our daughter was born, Julie asked Keesie to be Angela's GodMother.) She asked me to put Julie on the phone that she wanted to surprise her and I then informed her that Julie has passed away a few months earlier. She said one of the reasons she was calling was to let us know that Gerry had also passed away. We talked for a while, exchanged numbers and e-mail addresses and then continued to be in contact. Of course, I was living here in Pittsburgh Texas and Keesie was living in Denver Colorado. We finally agreed to meet again and we decided to meet half way in Silina, Kansas. When Gerry got transferred off Recruiting duty, we still called each other for a while, then we wrote, then exchanged Christmas cards, but I hadn’t heard from her in over 40 years. After meeting in Kansas, I visited her at her home in Colorado, and let's just say that one thing let to another and on Juanary 21, 2011 I married Keithrie O'Neal Vander Jenkins here in Pittsburg, Texas I retired from the Texas Workforce Center and we moved to Auroa, Colorado where I spent the entire winter of 2011, however, shortly after we moved back home to Texas. Larry Joe's interest includes genealogy, computers, genealogy, writing, genealogy, restoring his house and genealogy.
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