| |
| |
|
|
R E S O L U T I O N
|
|
|
WHEREAS, Family and friends are mourning the loss of admired |
|
|
educator Mickey Darnell Lewis of Malakoff, who died on March 26, |
|
|
2017, at the age of 72; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, The son of Flonnie and James Lewis, Mickey Lewis was |
|
|
born in Malakoff on June 15, 1944; he graduated from |
|
|
Hamshire-Fannett High School and interrupted his college education |
|
|
to enlist in the U.S. Air Force; during the Vietnam War, he was |
|
|
stationed on Okinawa as a flight mechanic, and he went on to work as |
|
|
a jet engine mechanic at Stewart Air Force Base in New York; he |
|
|
subsequently returned to Stephen F. Austin State University to |
|
|
complete both his bachelor's degree and his master's degree in |
|
|
education; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, Mr. Lewis taught science at Crockett Intermediate |
|
|
School for more than three decades; instilling a love of science and |
|
|
nature in his students, he supplemented classroom instruction with |
|
|
an annual camping trip, and many of his pupils considered him their |
|
|
favorite teacher; he was also a special education teacher for |
|
|
several years, serving in the Crockett and Palestine Independent |
|
|
School Districts and in a remote Eskimo village, Akiachak, Alaska; |
|
|
and |
|
|
WHEREAS, A devoted family man, Mr. Lewis shared a fulfilling |
|
|
marriage of more than a half century with his wife, Norma Patricia |
|
|
Aubey Lewis, and he was the father of three treasured children, |
|
|
Noralee, Audrey, and Brant; in later years, he took great pride in |
|
|
his grandsons, Aaron, Jared, and Nathan Cravens and Gavin Lewis; he |
|
|
enjoyed taking family camping trips to observe animals and plants |
|
|
in the great outdoors, and he and his wife traveled to all 50 |
|
|
states, as well as to Mexico, Canada, Australia, and Europe; with |
|
|
his eldest grandson, he harvested trees and built a log cabin, and |
|
|
when he began growing sugarcane, he shared jars of homemade syrup |
|
|
with friends, relatives, and fellow retired teachers; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, Mickey Lewis enriched the lives of innumerable |
|
|
people, and those who were fortunate enough to know him will forever |
|
|
remember his kindness, his enthusiasm, and his profound |
|
|
appreciation for the natural world; now, therefore, be it |
|
|
RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the 85th Texas |
|
|
Legislature hereby pay tribute to the life of Mickey Darnell Lewis |
|
|
and extend sincere sympathy to his loved ones; and, be it further |
|
|
RESOLVED, That an official copy of this resolution be |
|
|
prepared for his family and that when the Texas House of |
|
|
Representatives adjourns this day, it do so in memory of Mickey |
|
|
Lewis. |