James Webster Elliott

James Webster Elliott

Austin

J.W. Elliott

James Webster Elliott, known among family, friends and colleagues as "Web," passed away Friday, Aug. 7, 2015, in Austin, Texas, at the age of 93.

He was born Sept. 27, 1921, in the rural community of Concord, in Rusk County, Texas.

At age five, Web, the youngest son of Albert Cecil and Monnie Green Elliott, moved with his family to Sonora, Sutton County, Texas, where he attended Sonora public schools and was Salutatorian of the 1938 Sonora High School graduating class. In the fall of 1938, he enrolled as a freshman student at The University of Texas in Austin, where he pursued his undergraduate studies through the fall semester of 1941. In the spring of 1942, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, he moved to Los Angeles, California, where he worked for North American Aviation assembling aircraft (P-51s and B-25s) for use in the War effort and while there in Los Angeles continued his undergraduate studies at the University of Southern California. On Sept. 30, 1942, he enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps and was stationed at San Angelo Air Field (which subsequently became Mathis Field) in San Angelo, Texas, where he served until November, 1945.

Web returned to UT Austin in the Spring of 1946, where he concluded his undergraduate work and then went on to law school, receiving his LLB from UT School of Law in 1948. Following graduation from law school, he returned to his hometown of Sonora, where he joined his father, A.C. Elliott, uncle L.W. Elliott and brother William Marion Elliott in various family businesses. He will be most remembered for his service to Sutton County and his long and successful career practicing law.

In 1950, Peggy Jean Matthews, then a young graduate of The University of Texas at Austin, moved to Sonora, newly employed by the Sonora Independent School District, where not long after her arrival she met Web. Smitten by the new high school home economics and junior high science teacher, Web married Peggy in Livingston, Texas, on July 19, 1951, and their marriage continued for 51 years until Peggy's death on July 3, 2003.

While attending to his law practice, Web served the citizens of Sutton County for 30 consecutive years, initially as Sutton County Attorney (1949-1958), and then as Sutton County Judge (1959-1978). In October of 1986, Web was elected Chairman of the Board and President of The First National Bank of Sonora (now Sonora Bank), embarking on his "second" career as a banker, performing his duties at the bank in the mornings and continuing his law practice in the afternoons until December of 1988, when he retired from the practice of law to devote his energies full-time to the banking business. In 1994, Web and Peggy moved to Austin, but Web's involvement with the bank continued until his retirement as Director in June of 1997, at which time the bank appointed him Director and Chairman Emeritus.

Among his professional achievements, and the civic and other community endeavors with which he was involved over the course of his career, Web was a member of the American and Texas Bar Associations, the County Judges and Commissioners Association and the National College of Probate Judges. In 1948, he was appointed by the Director of Selective Service as Government Appeal Agent for Local Board No. 110, Texas, and served as an advisor to registrants until 1975. In 1953, he was commissioned as an Honorary Member of the Texas Attorney General's staff, and, in 1954, was appointed an Honorary Assistant to the Texas Attorney General's Office. In 1971, he was appointed as a member of The American Judicature Society, and, in June of 1977, he was elected as a Fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation. In 1980, he was appointed as a member of The Dean's Council by The University of Texas Law School Association, and, in October of 1986, he was admitted to practice before the United States Tax Court. He was also an approved examining attorney for Stewart Title Guaranty Company. He was a member of the Sonora Chamber of Commerce, served as Director of the Lillian M. Hudspeth Memorial Hospital, as Secretary of the Sonora Wool Warehouse & Mohair Co., and as Secretary-Treasurer of Sonora Stockpens, Inc. He was a past director of the Sonora Lions Club and he and Peggy served as directors of the Fling Ding and Tarantella Dance social clubs. Throughout his adult life, he was a member and steward of the First United Methodist Church of Sonora.

Web was preceded in death by his parents, Albert Cecil and Monnie Green Elliott; his stepmother, Rena McQuary Elliott; his older brother, William Marion Elliott; and his wife, Peggy Jean Matthews Elliott.

He is survived by his daughter, Emily Kathryn Elliott, by his son, John W. Elliott and his wife, Ellen Bugg Elliott and by his two grandsons, Web and Patrick Elliott, all of Austin.

The family would like to give special thanks to the caregivers who so gracefully and ably cared for Web during his final months, Estela Celis, Carmen Delgado and Maria Wong, to the many doctors and nurses who so capably attended to his needs during that time, and, as well, to the administrators and staff at Halcyon Home Care and Hospice for their invaluable professional guidance and service.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions in Web's honor may be made to the charity of one's choice.

A memorial service for Web will be held at 11 a.m. Friday, Aug. 21, 2015, at The First Methodist Church of Sonora, located at 201 Water Avenue, Sonora, TX 76950, phone number: (325) 387-2466.

Arrangements by Weed-Corley-Fish Funeral Home, (512) 452-8811. Obituary and memorial guestbook available online at wcfish.com.