Brownlee Feild
A service for Brownlee Feild, 96, of Burnet is 10:30 a.m. Nov. 14 at Edgar Funeral Home, 109 N. Main St. in Burnet, (512) 756-4444. Darrell Debo and Barry Drake will officiate. Burial will follow at Pleasant Hill Cemetery.
Brownlee was born on Jan. 26, 1916, to Ira and Blanche Everett Field at Sage in Burnet County and passed from this life on Nov. 11, 2012, in Lampasas.
He attended school in the lower grades at Bethel, then finished high school at Lake Victor.
He began attending church at Lake Victor Baptist church in 1922 and became a member of that church in 1933. He later became a deacon there and serving as chairman of the building committee. He drew up the blueprints for the new church building constructed in 1950.
Brownlee was an avid baseball fan, and the highlight of his younger days was when he signed a contract with the St. Louise Cardinals to attend spring training in 1937. Unfortunately, his baseball career was short-lived, though he continued to idolize Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Mickey Mantle and Hank Aaron.
In 1938, Brownlee married an old schoolmate, Merle Farquhar, and they had a son, Jack, and a daughter, Jan, in 1941.
Brownlee and Merle started a registered turkey operation. They imported breeding stock and eggs from California, Nebraska and Missouri. They had their own incubators with a 10,000-egg capacity and the latest in brooding equipment. They sold locally and shipped turkey breeding-stock eggs and pouts over a good portion of the United States. In 1956, they sold the turkey business after Brownlee was appointed to an unexpired term as the Burnet County tax assessor-collector. After this, he ran for the office for four terms and then retired undefeated. During his tenure in office, he and his highly capable group of deputies prided themselves in being first, or near the first, county in the state to present their annual tax roll to the state comptroller for approval.
He was a member of the Texas Collector-Assessor’s Association, and, along the way, he served about seven years on the Burnet Consolidated Independent School District board. Also, he served a number of times on various county and state agricultural committees.
In 1963, he and Merle established a registered heard of Hereford cattle which Jack still maintains, sometimes importing herd bulls and breeding stock from Wyoming, Montana and the Dakotas. He was a member of the American Hereford Association.
Brownlee was a lover of good music in the big band days. Some of his favorites included Guy Lombardo, Wayne King, Tommie Dorsey, Bennie Goodman and Lawrence Welk. He attended a dance in the mid-1930s in Burnet at Mr. Cole’s Old Opera House where Lawrence Welk and his boys furnished the music.
Survivors include son Jack Feild and wife Vivian and daughter Jan Whisenant and husband Ron, all of Burnet; grandchildren Mort and Barbara Feild Smith, Jack Jr. and Verna Feild and Ricky Feild, all of Katy; and great-grandchildren Curtis Smith, Dwain Sutton, Callie Smith, Ashley Feild, Cassidy Feild, Justin Field and Jace Field, also of Katy.
Those serving as pallbearers include Jack Feild, Ricky Feild, Mort Smith, Andy Feild Brownlee Bowmer and Marion Ferguson. Honorary pallbearers are Richard Sanders, Emmitt Jackson, Larry Hodge, Waite Hoyt Adams, Nolan Warner, Carroll Buck and Jim Cummings.
Visitation was Nov. 13 at the funeral home.
Friends can express their condolences to the family at edgarfh.com.