Cantrell Eben Bryan, III

cantrell bryan, iii
C.E. was born in Edinburg, Texas on July 21, 1936. He spent his early life living on a ranch in Benavides in South Texas where his father was the manager. After his father's early death his mother married Alton Mills and C.E. and his two sisters, Jeannette and Catherine Elizabeth, moved to San Antonio. He attended Brackenridge High School and then joined the Air Force for four years and was stationed in France. After discharge he spent time in the family window covering business in San Antonio which was of little interest. Marine biology and oceanography were becoming popular subjects and was very interesting to him. He graduated from the University of Corpus Christi with a B. S Degree in fisheries biology and later a Master’s Degree from Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and began a distinguished twenty six year career with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department Coastal Fisheries Division. He married his childhood friend, Kathleen Clayton from McAllen, Texas in 1962. They spent 59+ wonderful years working and enjoying life in Corpus Christi, Harlingen, Rockport and Austin. C.E. continued to follow his uncles’ love of fishing and ranching. He particularly enjoyed going with “Uncle Dick” to ride the range and round up cattle. In retirement he took up golf, watercolor painting and traveling, often in the family RV. Spending time with family and friends was very important. He especially en-joyed being with his nephews, Scott, West, Tom and Bryan, and niece Gwen. In 2002 C.E. and Kathleen moved to New Braunfels to the Bandit Golf Course for happy days of golfing and living in the 1947 ranch house on the property. CE began having hemorrhagic brain strokes in 2009 and in 2018 they moved to the Pinnacle at Eden Hill in New Braunfels. C.E.’s parents were Margaret Elizabeth Edwards and Cantrell Eben Bryan Jr. The Ed-wards and Bryan families were early pioneers to Texas and the Rio Grande Valley. Great Grandfather Dr. Augustus Lawson Edwards came from Georgia in the 1860s to the Valley and practiced medicine along the Rio Grande border. Lawyer Grandfather James Henry Edwards was prominent in county and state offices and politics and was elected a State Representative in 1896 .He started an abstract company that was in the family for one hundred years. Great Grandfather Thomas Richard Bryan came from Georgia to East Texas where Grandfather Cantrell Eben Bryan (the first) was born in 1881. Cantrell came to the Valley in the early 1900s. He and family members were successful in ranching, oil and other business ventures. Memorials in honor of C.E. may be given to organizations and programs dedicated to land conservation and wild life preservation or any personal cause of one’s choice.

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