Tragic Accident At Local Hotel Claims Life Of R. T. Bass, Henderson Co., TX

Athens Weekly Review
Thursday May 6, 1937

Tragic Accident At Local Hotel Claims Life Of
R. T. Bass, 31, Prominent Young School Leader

Henderson county Friday morning mourned the passing of one of the outstanding young school leaders in East Texas in the tragic accidental death of R. T. Bass, 31, superintendent of the large Brownsboro Consolidated school. The young school superintendent’s death occurred at a Jacksonville hospital shortly after midnight Friday morning as a result of a fall down half a flight of stairs at the Deen Hotel here two hours before. His neck was broken when he tripped and fell forward from steps leaving the second floor of the hotel to the landing between the first and second floors.

Unconscious, he was removed to room 106 of the hotel and soon afterward was rushed to the Nan Travis hospital in Jacksonville in a Carroll & Lehr ambulance car, Dr. W. B. Lain following the car to give medical attention. He died in the hospital shortly after arriving there, taking only a few gasps after being placed under an oxygen tent as physicians sought desperately to save his life. The ambulance car had stopped briefly on the highway at LaRue for Dr. Lain to examine the injured man.

Superintendent Bass had been conferring at the hotel with Gene Goff, well known oil man relative to the sale of some interests owned by the Brownsboro school head in the Opelika area. Two days before he had sold Goff four royalty acres at a reported price of $400.00 an acre.

Funeral Services Saturday.

Funeral services were held at 2:00 o’clock Saturday afternoon in the large gymnasium auditorium at Brownsboro, it being decided to hiold the services there because of the large crowd. Interment followed in the Holly Springs cemetery, a short distance north of Martins Mill in Van Zandt county.

Praised By Leaders
The tragic death of the young school leader brought many expressions of sympathy form various parts of the State as well as from his hundreds of friends in Henderson county.

“R. T. Bass was widely recognized by the leaders in educational work in Texas as one of the outstanding young school men of the State,” said Frank J. Davis, County Superintendent, of Schools. “His sudden death came as a severe blow to the many who have seen him work and fight for the betterment of rural educational facilities in Texas. His own school will stand as a monument to those successful efforts.”

Native of Van Zandt County

Richard Thelmer Bass was born at Martins Mill on September 9, 1905. he was educated at the North Texas Teachers College at Denton, receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree from that school.

The deceased and Miss Eveline Browning of Brownsboro were married on August 3, 1935. They have a baby daughter, born only eleven days ago at Jacksonville.

Before going to Brownsboro nine years ago, Supt. Bass taught at Primrose and at Pruitt. He became head of the Brownsboro school when it had only six teachers, expanding it into one of the outstanding consolidated educational systems in Texas. The school has a modern plant with a staff of twenty-six teachers.

He was a member of the Missionary Baptist Church and of Masonic Lodge No. 165, Athens.

Those surviving include his wife, baby daughter, Lilia Sue; his parents, Mr. and Mrs. R. Bass, Ben Wheeler; three brothers, Dr. J. W. Bass, city health officer of Dallas; and H. D. Bass and D. R. Bass, both of Ben Wheeler; four sisters Mrs. M. T. Sides, Canton; Mrs. Marie Jackson, Brownsboro; Miss Pauline Bass, Ben Wheeler and Miss Kathline Bass, Ben Wheeler.

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