H. L. Rowell, Jr. (Tulia)

Tulia, Texas— H.L. Rowell, Jr., 78, died Wednesday, May 9, 2007 in Amarillo. Funeral services will be held at 2:00pm Friday, May 11, 2007 in the First Baptist Church with Rev. Charles Davenport, retired Baptist minister and Rev. James Hassell, pastor, officiating. Burial will follow in Rose Hill Cemetery under the direction of Kornerstone Funeral Directors of Tulia. Mr. Rowell was born December 30, 1928 in the Sunset Community near Munday, Texas. They moved to Knox City in 1934, to Abernathy in 1943 to farm and to Happy, Texas in 1945 where he graduated high school in 1946. He worked at the Gulf service station in Tulia from 1947-1949. He married Jean McManigal on August 13, 1950 in Happy and was drafted into the US Army in 1951. He went to Ft. Meade, Maryland and trained as a surgical technician and worked at Brooke General Hospital and then to Ft. Sam Houston in San Antonio. He served 15 months at Bad Hurstfeld, Germany as a surgical technician with the 14th Armored Calvary regiment. He returned to Ft. Sill, Oklahoma still in his winter uniform in July 1953 where the temperature was 112 degrees, he had a tooth ache as well and they told him he could stay in the dispensary for another week but he said he would just ‘suffer’ and go ahead and be discharged and go home. He hitch hiked from Ft. Sill to Amarillo. In 1953 he sold Allis-Chalmers machinery for Goodman and Doan in Tulia. He moved to Happy in 1955 and opened a farm machinery dealership called Rowell-Doan Farm Supply in Happy and Hereford. He sold these dealerships in 1960 and moved back to Tulia to operate Rowell Oil Co. He later formed a partnership with Ed Rawson called R & R Fertilizer and Spraying Co. until he began to farm in Vigo Park and Salem communities. He was one of the original board members of the Driskill House when it first began in 1975 and was currently on the board. In September 1992 he began a volunteer ministry, two Experiencing God classes in the new prison facility at Tulia. The prison did not have a staff chaplain and the warden asked him to serve as a volunteer chaplain at the Tulia Unit. During the ten years he served as the volunteer chaplain many people from Tulia and the Panhandle area became active volunteer in the Tulia Prison Ministry. Survivors include his wife; Jean Rowell of Tulia, one daughter; Jean Ann Butler of Griffin, Georgia, two granddaughters; Jami Dickey and Lori Dickey, one brother, J.D. Rowell of Amarillo, one sister & brother –in-law; Frances and Rev. "Neil" Jack Jeter, of Navasota. He is preceded in death by his parents, one son; John Rowell, one grandson; Joshua Dickey, a sister; Lola Jean Rowell and a sister-in-law; Bette Rowell. The family suggests memorials to a favorite church or charity.