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7405 West Northwest Highway
Dallas, Texas
William James Wooten
1924-2016
William James Wooten, known affectionately as Jimmy, W.J., Jim, and Papa Jim, died peacefully August 19th at the age of 92. He was the fifth and last child born to E. Oliver Wooten and Connie Harris Wooten on June 20, 1924 in Abilene, Texas. He was pre-deceased by his parents, his wife of 58 years Lou Ellen Bryan Wooten, two sisters Connie Catherine of Abilene and Roberta Wooten Bramlette of Houston, and two brothers, Harris Wooten and Don Wooten, both of Abilene.
In the early 1930's, after losing her husband and two children, Jim's mother Connie moved him and Don from Abilene to Dallas to be close to his sister Roberta who was attending SMU. Jim went to Bradfield Elementary and Highland Park Junior and Senior High School. Jim loved the outdoors and often told stories of fishing Coon Creek and hunting dove on land now known as Preston Center.
Following his high school graduation in 1941, he entered the University of Texas and joined the Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity. In December, Pearl Harbor was bombed and in June 1942, at age 18, he joined the U. S. Navy as an aviation cadet. He flew the Corsair and F7F Tigercat and received his wings and Marine Corps commission in January 1944 at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida. Jim was scheduled for Okinawa when the war ended. Although he never saw action, the experiences and memories from these years never left him.
After being released by the Marines in 1946, he returned to the University of Texas and soon met Lou Ellen Bryan of Seguin. They were married within five months. Following his graduation in 1949, Jim joined Magnolia Petroleum Company as a Landman. During this time, he and Lou lived in Portales, NM; Shreveport, LA; Oklahoma City, OK and finally arrived in Houston, Texas in 1955. In 1957, Jim joined Texas Gas Exploration Corp as Manager of its Land Department. He went on to become President in 1971, an office he held for 11 years before retiring in 1982.
After leaving Texas Gas, Jim served as a Petroleum Consultant for a number of exploration and production companies in the United States and Canada. He was on the Board of Directors of Dekalb Energy Company, Houston Oil Fields, and Texas Commerce Bank – Tanglewood. He was a member of Houston Country Club and served as a Director of Young Life and the Alley Theater.
Upon their arrival in Houston, Lou and Jim joined the newly formed St. Martin's Episcopal Church. They were very active members and he was twice elected to the Vestry and served as both Junior and Senior Warden. Jim particularly enjoyed his 26-year involvement in Post Oak Little League and he loved the Texas Longhorns, bass fishing, dove and quail hunting, and before children, carried a 2 handicap at Champions Golf Club.
In 1989, after almost forty years in Houston, Lou and Jim decided to move to their farm on the San Marcos River. While there, he served on the Vestry of St. Andrews Episcopal Church in Seguin, the same church where he and Lou were married fifty years earlier. In February 1995, Lou was diagnosed with brain cancer and for the next 9 years, until her death in 2004, most of Jim's time was spent caring for the love of his life. Jim rarely left her side during those difficult years and he set an amazing example of what true love means.
At the age of 82 and after attending a reunion at Highland Park High School where they met, Jim married Barbara Lomax Hitzelberger of Dallas on November 25, 2006. They had much in common as her late husband had been a very good friend of Jim's older brother, Don Wooten. Like Jim, she also had four sons. The connection was immediate and the happiness and love it brought Papa Jim was unmistakable. He felt very blessed and fortunate to have found Barbara at this stage in his life and he loved her dearly.
In addition to Barbara Hitzelberger Wooten, Jim is survived by his four sons and their families: Bryan James Wooten, wife Sherri and their son Judson; William Harris Wooten, wife Jill and their children Whitney Hinton (husband Jimmy) and William; Timm Wooten, wife Suzanne and their children Timm and James; and James Wilson Wooten, wife Melinda and their children, Robert (wife Jennifer) and Ellen Dixon (husband Max), and three great grandchildren - Leighton and James Hinton and Davey Wooten.
A memorial service will be held on September 10th at 10:00 am at the Highland Park United Methodist Church in Dallas, Texas and a private interment ceremony will be held at St. Martin's Church in Houston at a later date.
In lieu of flowers, the family suggests memorials to the Chapel Fund at St. Andrews Episcopal Church Endowment Fund, 200 East Nolte Street, Seguin, Texas 78155, the Chapel Fund at St. Martin's Episcopal Church, 117 Sage Road, Houston, Texas 77056, or a charity of your choice.
To plant trees in memory, please visit the Sympathy Store.
Sponsored by Sparkman/Hillcrest Funeral Home & Hillcrest Mausoleum & Memorial Park.
3 Entries
Please accept my sincerest condolences
for your loss. My prayers are with you.
alfred Prejean
September 3, 2016
Wooten family, I'm sorry for your loss my condolences. May you find comfort during this time (2 Cor. 1:4).
August 31, 2016
Please accept my sincerest condolences for your loss. May you find comfort in knowing that God cares and keeps our loved ones safe in His memory. ~1 Peter 5:6,7/Luke 20:38
JW
August 28, 2016
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