Robert Chapman

Funeral services for Robert Edward Chapman, 95, of Whitesboro will be held at 1 p.m. Friday, October 12 at Calvary Baptist Church in Gainesville. Mr. Chapman died Wednesday, October 10 at Wilson N. Jones Hospital in Sherman, Texas.

Burial will be at Oakwood Cemetery in Whitesboro, under the direction of the Geo. J. Carroll & Son Funeral Home in Gainesville.

Robert was born June 3, 1912, in Synder, Scurry County, Texas, the son of Samuel Oscar Chapman and his wife, Cora Lee (Lynch) Chapman. When he was six years old, his father returned his family to Cooke County, where Robert’s great-grandfather, Anderson Chapman from Alabama, had settled in 1852. Robert was the fifth child of nine. When his father died in 1929, he and his brother, Carl, assumed the roles of men of the house. On May 30, 1937, Robert and Ruby Mae Johnson were married in Sivells Bend, Texas. Ruby was the daughter of Robert Edward Johnson and Rosa Estelle Reeves-Johnson; she was from Marysville, Texas. Ruby passed away on January 29, 1996.

Robert Chapman had been a farmer all his life, but in 1951, he moved his family to Whitesboro and a short time later, began his oilfield career during the boom days in Grayson County. He worked first as a roughneck and later as a driller. He went to work for Mercer’s Oil Service a few years before his retirement. After he retired, he stayed busy helping around his church.

“Mr. Bob” loved dominoes and was part of the original gang at the old domino hall. People who knew him will always remember him for his sense of humor and the twinkle in his eye which he never lost.

Mr. Chapman had 44 descendants. Surviving are three sons, Robert E. Chapman Jr. and wife, Barbara (Bullard) Chapman of Gainesville, Texas; Thomas L. Chapman and wife, Nanette (Musso) Chapman of Arlington, Texas; Richard L. Chapman and wife, Donna (Rhodes) Chapman of Dorchester, Texas; and two daughters, Jewel M. “Judy” and husband, John W. Phelps of Winnie, Texas; and Rosa L. Chapman-Mohtasham of Whitesboro, Texas. He had 21 grandchildren; 21 great-grandchildren; and two great-great-grandchildren.

He was preceded in death by his beloved wife, Ruby; his parents, Samuel Oscar Chapman Sr. (1929) and Cora Lee Chapman (1962); brothers, Austin Elwood Chapman (1932), Samuel Oscar Chapman Jr. (1962), Albert Sidney Chapman (1984), and Carl Clifford Chapman (1999); and sisters, Mary Wilma Chapman (1911), Bertha Lee Skeen (1987), Cora Irene Mauldin (2002), and Ruby Gladys Marshall (2003).

Family night will be at 7 p.m. Thursday, October 11 at the Geo. J. Carroll & Son Funeral Home.

Memorial contributions may be made to First United Methodist Church; 122 S. Union St.; Whitesboro, TX 76273.