T. A. (Truss) Gray, 86, father of Nute Gray of Happy, and pioneer citizen of Swisher County, died at an Amarillo hospital at 3:00 Friday evening. For almost a half century he made Swisher County his home before going to Amarillo, where he had resided for five years at the time of his death.
Mr. Gray was a retired cattleman, and was well known throughout the Panhandle-Plains. He was a native of Virginia, born Sept. 26, 1852. The Gray family moved to Crosby County in 1885, after settling in Dallas earlier.
The pioneer cattleman helped to organize Crosby County in 1885 and become the first tax assessor of that county. The land tax then was assessed on half a cent an acre.
It was in 1887 that the Gray family moved to Swisher County settling on Tule Creek. The Grays and the Conners were the first two families to homestead in what is now Swisher County on the Tule.
Mr. Gray married MISS MARGARET ISABEL LYNCH in 1878, and she preceded him in death in the spring of 1935.
Funeral services for the cattleman-cattle buyer were conducted from the First Presbyterian Church of Tulia Sunday afternoon at 2:00. Mr. Gray was a member of that church. Rev. J. Hoyt Boles, pastor, officiated. Interment was in the Tulia Cemetery under direction of N. S. Griggs & Sons of Amarillo.
Survivors of Mr. Gray include one daughter, Mrs. M. C. Cockran of Amarillo; one son, Nute Gray of Happy; seven grandchildren, Mrs. Mapel King of Philadelphia; Mrs. Ira L. Smith of Amarillo; Truss Cochran of Williams, Ariz.; Mrs. R. Knighton of Amarillo; Nute Cochran of Arizona; Clay L. Cochran of Austin and Lorraine Cochran of Amarillo; and four great-grandchildren.
