Telefus Beverly "Bud" Cawyer

1912 - 2006

Telefus Beverly "Bud" Cawyer, 93, a pharmacist, died Friday, Aug. 4, 2006, at a Fort Worth hospital.

Funeral: 2 p.m. Monday, Hillcrest Church of Christ. Burial: East Memorial Cemetery Stephenville. Visitation: 3 to 5 :30 p.m. Sunday at Stephenville Funeral Home.

Memorials: Foster's Home for Children, Stephenville.

Telefus Beverly Cawyer was born Nov. 21, 1912, to Roscoe and Fannie Johnson Cawyer in Mercury. He married Irma Aurora Davis on Dec. 21, 1939. They had four sons together. Irma preceded him in death on June 19, 1952. He remarried in 1962 to Shirley Brittain Clayton.

Telefus was a respected pharmacist in the community and owner of Cawyer Drug Store from 1935 to 1973.

He was active in civic affairs being a member and officer in many local organizations: director of the Chamber of Commerce, president of the Rotary Club, member of the ration board during World War II, county chairman of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, president of the Community Chest, Boy Scouts of America, American Red Cross, American Cancer Society, American Heart Association, served as the state director for the United Fund, served two terms on the city council and one term on the city planning committee, and was twice nominated as citizen of the year.

His love and most satisfying work was to his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He began preaching in nearby congregations of the Church of Christ in 1939 and continued to preach well into his 80s in places as far away as Canada. He has served as a deacon and an elder in the church and was privileged to have conducted over a thousand marriages and funeral services.

He was preceded in death by his wives, Irma and Shirley; a son, Aubrey Wayne Cawyer; his sisters, Rhesa Graves, Madelyn Hassler and Jamie Gahagan; one granddaughter, Sarah Cawyer; and one great-grandson, Mathew Cawyer.

Survivors: Sons, Telefus Beverly Cawyer and his wife, Charlotte of Round Rock, Carroll Lynn Cawyer and his wife, Ruth of Stephenville, and R.D. Cawyer and his wife, Shirley of Lindsay; sisters, Gretta Smith of Sonora and Barbara Garlitz of Corpus Christi; eight grandchildren; 14 great-grandchildren; and two great-great-grandchildren.