Robert A. "Bob" Cross

1924 - 2016

Bob Cross, born Aug. 8, 1924, to Mary Lee Trimmier Cross and Cecil A. Cross in Temple, passed away on Saturday, April 30, 2016. Graveside service: 2 p.m. Wednesday in the City Cemetery in Palestine. Visitation/memorial: 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at Wiley Funeral Home in Granbury. Bob's maternal family came to Texas in 1836. In the late 1930s his family moved to Palestine where he graduated from high school in 1942. He joined the Agricultural & Mechanical College of Texas (Texas A&M) in 1942 but soon left to serve in the U.S. Navy from 1943-1946 where he fought in World War II in the Pacific theater and was stationed on Saipan Island. Upon being discharged from the U.S. Navy, he married the love of his life, Wanda Gambrell Cross, in 1948 in Palestine. He went back to Texas A&M where he graduated in 1951 with a civil engineer degree. In 1959, Bob and Wanda moved to Benbrook where they resided until 2000, which is when they moved back to Palestine. During his career he worked for the Corps of Engineers from 1951-1956, Carswell in 1956 as a chief engineer, and then he began working for the GSA in the late 1960s and stayed there until his retirement in 1980. Bob Cross continued his residence in Palestine until moving to Granbury in 2015 when treatments for his cancer started. He was preceded in death by his father, Cecil A. Cross; mother, Mary Lee Trimmier Cross; sister, Ruth Nelson; sister, Mary Fuller; wife, Wanda Gambrell Cross. Survivors: His brother, James Cross and wife, Anne, of Oregon; sister, Sally Hunnicutt of Aubrey; daughter, Carol Presley and husband, Larry, of Tolar; son, Jim Cross of Tolar; grandson, Brent Blackmon and wife, Sarah, of Granbury; granddaughter, Ashley Clay and husband, Clif, of Denton; granddaughter, Kearsten Cross of Azle; grandson, Walter Presley of Burleson; grandson, Shawn Presley and wife, Shannon, of Roanoke; 11 great- grandchildren; and numerous nieces and nephews.