Ted Browning

FRANKLIN - Ted "Tex" Price Browning went home to be with the Lord Friday, Dec. 5, 2025, after a short battle with cancer.
Tex was born on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 22, 1945, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Often, he laughingly referred to himself as a "Thanksgiving Turkey." He was adopted by Bud and Betty Browning, of Bartlesville, Oklahoma. He joined a family of three sisters, Kay (Larry), Jill (Jim) and Gay (Jim). His sister Jill survives him.
Fifty-two years ago, Tex married the love of his life, Ruth Anne. They met at a luau while the two were studying at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu during a summer semester. He and Ruth Anne had three children, Marlaine (David), Heather (Leo) and Danny (Karen). All survive him, along with three beloved grandchildren, Raul, Isabel and Nora.
Tex was always quite proud of his father, Bud, who was an outstanding basketball player and head coach of the U.S. Olympic Basketball team, which brought home a gold medal from the 1948 Olympic games in London. Tex and his sister, Jill, attended the 2012 Summer Olympics, held in London, in their dad's honor.
While growing up in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, Tex developed a strong interest in horses. As a teenager, he mucked out a neighbor's stable in exchange for riding privileges. He even rode that horse to high school, where it grazed along the edges of the football field. He was also a founding member of the Sooner Saddlers, a horse-riding group for young people, who often took long rides on Saturdays around Bartlesville.
Each summer, his family spent several months at Rabbit Ears Lodge near Steamboat Springs, Colorado, which his father managed for the Phillips 66 oil company. His father recognized he needed to keep his active son busy while there. So, as an 8-year-old, Tex learned to make a perfect bed on the "cabin girl team." This was a skill that Ruth Anne valued throughout their married life. Soon, he was big enough to help in the stables working with the horses and later leading groups of guests on lengthy trail rides in the Rocky Mountains (earning his nickname of Tex).
During hay-harvest season, neighboring ranchers often hired him to cut perfectly straight rows of hay and skillfully stack it so that it never fell all winter long. He paid his way through college by being a horsemanship and backpacking counselor at nearby youth camps. He loved those experiences.
Tex obtained his BS in mathematics at Northeastern Oklahoma State University followed by a master's in math education from Kansas State University. He then served in the U.S. Army as a 2nd lieutenant.
Tex taught middle and high school math for over 35 years. He spent his first two years teaching on the Navajo Nation in Arizona. At the end, there was no extra money in the bank, but a beautiful collection of Southwest Indian art to enjoy for the rest of his life.
Most of his career was spent at Fort Clarke Middle School and Eastside High School in Gainesville, Florida. Many students' lives were enriched not only with mathematics understanding but also with wisdom and sportsmanship as he coached basketball, volleyball, golf and the Mu Alpha Theta math team. He loved working with young people. He set high expectations and many former students returned as adults to thank him.
Outside of school, Tex enjoyed gardening and landscaping. He faithfully rose early on Saturday mornings to catch the "how-to" shows on PBS: Victory Garden, This Old House and Bob Ross' Joy of Painting. Then he tried his hand at each new technique. It was his special joy when his children joined him in his endeavors.
Tex was a life-long music-lover and participated in many different ways through the years. During middle school he learned to play the clarinet and continued to play in high school, college and in the Gainesville Community Band for 30 years. At College High School in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, he served as drum major, working hard to learn to strut at the head of the band.
Travel was another passion for Tex. Being a teacher allowed the family to take extended summer trips all over the U.S., visiting national parks, monuments and making many memories along the way. They eventually covered all the U.S. and Canada, including Alaska and Hawaii. Then his sights stretched further with a Rick Steves' tour of Europe, and later, a three week "trip of a lifetime" adventure to New Zealand and Hawaii with Ruth Anne.
In the year 2000, he joined the Gideons International. The Gideons are a group of Christian professional men and their auxiliary wives who place Bibles and Testaments in hotels, motels, schools, hospitals and medical facilities throughout America and around the world. Through reading the Word of God, thousands of men and women, boys and girls, each year are reached with God's message of Life Everlasting through a belief in Jesus Christ.
Tex firmly believed in this work, participating in numerous Bible distributions around North Carolina. He even had the opportunity to expand this ministry into the Philippines, Nicaragua and Guatemala. He believed that this last portion of his life, filled with service to the Lord, was his most important of all.
Tex and Ruth Anne moved to Columbus, Ohio, in 2024 to be near their children and he passed peacefully surrounded by his loving family. Donations in Tex's memory may be made to the Gideons International gideons.org/donate or Vitas hospice healthcare vitascommunityconnection.org.