William Floyd Burroughs

HOUSTON William Floyd Burroughs, member of a pioneer Odessa family, died at his Houston home Sunday, January 8. He was 91 years old and had been battling a serious illness for the past few years.

Floyd was horn December 2, 1920 in Monkstown (Fannin County), Texas. His parents, F.L. and Addle Lee Burroughs, were young school teachers when Pancho Villa and his Mexican army crossed the Rio Grande to raid that area of South Texas. Afterward they lived in Gordon, where Mr. Burroughs was superintendent of schools and the footbal1 coach, and in Vernon and Littlefield before coming to Odessa in a Model T Ford in 1927. Mr. Burroughs had heard rumors of an impending potash strike on Ector County prairies.

No potash boom ensued, but an oil one did. Mr. Burroughs recognized a housing crisis as pre-Depression workers flocked into West Texas and paid for the privilege of sleeping on a cot. He borrowed money and built one of Odessa's first hotels. The hotel was located on Texas Avenue directly across from the Ector County Court House. Grounds extended to Jackson Avenue on property now occupied by the Odessa American.

Soon Mr. Burroughs expanded his business to real estate and insurance directing both from offices in the 500 block of North Grant. He would become both a civic and a business leader in the community, serving on the school board, chairing the Finance committee for the construction of the First Baptist Church at its present location, developing a major addition to the city in the Bowie Junior High School area, and training men who would be prominent in Odessa affairs for the next 40 years. Before his death in 1948, Mr. Burroughs had optioned for development much of the property north of University and east of the Andrews Highway, land that now comprises a major part of the city, as he had predicted.

Young Floyd grew up in this atmosphere of work and service. His early interest in technology led to several days in bed following a failed experiment with blasting caps he found at the site of the Court House construction. More successful were his researches into methods of shocking his younger sisters with various electrical devices.

Always a good student, he was the youngest (a ninth grader) to accompany the National Honor Society on its trip to Washington. D.C in 1935 .

Floyd graduated from Odessa High School in 1938. The school's famous fight song and alma mater, frequently "borrowed" by other schools, were introduced that year with music by G. Ward Moody and words by Fred Gage. The latter would become an employee of Mr. Burroughs and mayor of the city.

Among Floyd's schoolmates were controversial movie actress Barbara (Redfield) Payton, once described as "the most beautiful woman in Hollywood;" J.T. 'Slick' Rutherford, two-term U.S. Congressman and longtime Washington lobbyist; Paul Agnew, whose jewelry store was an Odessa institution; early veterinarian Guy Anderson; Donivee Purkey, "the perky Miss Purkey" who also went to Hollywood and married an industry executive; and notable athletes like Russell 'Easy' Wilkins, first OHS football player named to the all-state team; Raymond 'Sugar' Evans, first Broncho to play in the NFL; and Jack 'Red' Coats, the only football coach in
Odessa College history and "the legend" of Colorado high school coaches.

Floyd graduated from Hardin-Simmons University in 1942. That school was prominent in the lives of all five of the Burroughs children and Mr. Burroughs was a generous benefactor, once donating a downtown department store to its endowment,
While he was in Abilene, Floyd introduced a Midland friend, Riley Brooks, president of the student body, to his sister Mary Jo. A few years later, following service as a ball turret gunner in World War II, Riley became his brother-in-law and an employee of Mr. Burroughs.

Like most of his generation, Floyd left the serenity of campus life and went directly into military service. He enlisted in the Coast Guard and soon was an ensign assigned to command the engine room of LST-887, the USS Lawrence County (named for counties in 11 states, not including Texas). He was aboard when the 887 departed New Orleans for the western Pacific via the Panama Canal, San Diego. Seattle, and Pearl Harbor. Widely circulated photographs showed Floyd and crewmates socializing with former heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey.

In the spring of 1945 the 887 joined a convoy sailing to the Marianas, specifically the invasion of Okinawa. The 887 discharged its cargo of troops and equipment on that bloody beach on April 2 then spent the next two weeks patrolling the same waters, making cargo shuttles, shooting down an enemy dive bomber, fending off repeated kamikaze attacks, and laying down a smoke screen to shield other vessels from similar assaults.

Before he was deployed to the Pacific, Floyd had married his Hardin-Simmons sweetheart, Lillian Sweatman of Rayville, La. When the war was over the couple settled in Houston where Floyd obtained a mechanical engineering degree at Rice Institute. He spent the next several decades of his life designing engines, refineries and petrochemical plants for Offenhauser, C.E. Lummus, and the Fluor Corp. After his retirement he was frequently called upon to consult on similar projects.

In his late eighties Floyd was still traveling over great areas of the United States accompanied by his daughter, grandchildren and great-grand children and making stopovers at his old hometown. He enjoyed his family and his church and took an especial interest in political affairs particularly conservative causes and Rush Limbaugh radio broadcasts.

His wife Lillian died in 2009 but Floyd is survived by his son, Roderick (and wife Sandra) of Rosharn, Texas; his son, John (and wife Christie) of Broken Arrow, Okla.; and his daughter, Ina Lee of Houston. He is also survived by a number of grandchildren and great-grandchildren and by two of his four sisters, Helen (Mrs. Pug) Gabrel of Woodward, Okla. and Addie Lee (Mrs. Charles) Gillespie of Odessa.

Funeral services will be at 11 a.m. Thursday at Willow Meadow Baptist Church in Houston.