Palestine High School Alumni Association

11 / 21 / 1937  –  06 / 24 / 2012

Services for Gerald Moore, 74, of Palestine will be at 2 p.m. Saturday, June 30, 2012 at First Baptist Church of Elkhart with the Rev. Bill Gernenz and the Rev. Floyd Petersen officiating. Interment will follow at Cedar Creek Cemetery. Arrangements are under the direction of Bailey & Foster, Palestine.

Visitation will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday at Bailey & Foster.

Serving as pallbearers will be Jimmy Heifner, Tim Baker, Everett James, Ryan Soong, Martin Marquez, Lothario Smith and Henry Gonzales. Honorary pallbearers are Larry Mack, Billy Willis, Al Breeden, Joe Ed Bunton, Darrell Emanuel, Isaac Wynn, Ira Butler and Floyd Schmitz.

Mr. Moore passed away Sunday, June 24, at Hospice of East Texas in Tyler.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Calvin and Minnie Bell (Cleveland) Moore; an infant sister; and a son, Jerry Moore.

He is survived by his wife of 38 years, Dolores Moore; son, Chaney and wife Elizabeth; daughter-in-law, Sharon Moore Brossett and husband Ken; and three grandchildren, Colton and Caelyn Moore and Benjamin Brossett; as well as several cousins and their families and many dear friends.

His children and his grandchildren were the delight of his life. If you stayed around him more than a few minutes, you would be treated to a few (or more) moments of a proud Dad and Poppy telling you all about their latest accomplishments.

Gerald was born Nov. 21, 1937, according to his mother, and Nov. 20, 1937, according to Medicare, which was a quandary to him. Needless to say, he chose to believe his Mom’s report over that of the government. He attended Palestine public schools through 12th grade, graduating in 1956. He cherished his memories of friends and good times of those years, especially reveling in sharing the stories of football games he played, starting when they wore leather helmets, moving to having plastic helmets with little or no padding and the first bar across the face, which led to a reminiscence about a “holding” offense committed against him that wasn’t called, because there had never been a face mask penalty instituted because there were no face mask! He received All-State football honors his senior year at Palestine. Gerald attended Texas A&M on a football scholarship, and played during the last two years that Bear Bryant coached there, including the last game Mr. Bryant coached at A&M. His freshman year he earned a letter in football, and all conference recognition later. After that he played at TVCC in Athens (then known as Henderson County Junior College) where he was selected by the Dallas Morning News for their ALL-Texas Junior College Football Squad of 1958. After finishing up some course work there, he transferred to Stephen F. Austin to complete his Bachelor’s Degree and play more college football as a Lumberjack.

Upon graduation, Gerald’s first coaching/teaching job was in Temple, Texas, which he swore was a direct result of his football efforts against Temple during his junior and senior years at Palestine High. The person who interviewed him for the job remembered him well and spent a great deal of time discussing those games. When Gerald completed his Master’s degree in psychology and counseling at Stephen F. Austin in August 1966 he became a counselor at Fort Wingate Boarding School, Fort Wingate, New Mexico, transferring later to Albuquerque Indian School. Eventually he was promoted to assistant superintendent of the eight northern pueblo schools along the Rio Grande river in northern New Mexico.

On Dec. 20, 1973, he married Dolores in Albuquerque, and they moved to Dallas, Texas, in January (much to the dismay of her parents) where he worked in personnel administration for the Internal Revenue Service, first in the district office and later in the regional office. While there, they bought their first home together in Mesquite, and thus Dolores began to learn of Gerald’s penchant for buying “Fixer uppers” to remodel and either live in or rent. After seven years working with the IRS, Gerald “bit the bullet” and quit working for Uncle Sam and struck out on his own as “self-employed.” From then until the time of his death, Gerald delighted in working for himself, either in new construction (he first built three post offices after leaving the IRS) or even better in buying properties he could remodel for residential rentals, or repurpose as in churches and/or homes that he bought and converted to day care buildings that he leased to Head Start programs. Along the way, he built two homes for his family, the second one after the first burned in 1986. But more than new construction, he loved buying property that was in need of either a little or a lot of work and transforming that property into a gem by his hard work and knowledge put to good use. Gerald loved getting to know people. He was sincerely interested in who they were, what they did, what their purpose in life was, and if there was any way he could help someone, he would find a way to do it. He will be sorely missed by all.

To view online, leave condolences or sign guestbook go to www.baileyandfosterfuneralhome.com.