Murrie Easter

Murrie Easter, 96, longtime Midland resident, passed away of natural causes January 24, 2015, at Midland Memorial Hospital.  Murrie was born on September 14, 1918, to Clarence and Bessie Rice Easter on a ranch near Albany, Texas.  The second of three sons, he learned the value of hard work growing up during the Great Depression.  During his younger years, he worked numerous jobs and learned many skills, especially those necessary to raise cattle while attending Albany High School graduating in 1936.  Always athletic and adventurous, he had a fondness for fast cars and excelled at sports particularly football earning a scholarship to the University of Missouri; however, the economic stresses of the times prevented him from attending.  He maintained a lifelong love of sports especially football and baseball closely following the Dallas Cowboys, Texas Rangers, and Lee Rebels.As World War Two erupted in Europe, Murrie entered the US Army where he joined the 101^st Airborne Division.  He served proudly in England and then later in Europe beginning with the D-Day invasion.  In addition to the D-Day invasion, he participated in all three major offensive campaigns conducted by the 101^st Airborne including Operation Market Garden, (the airborne attack to liberate Holland), the Battle of the Bulge where he helped defend the encircled town of Bastogne and then the sweep through the Rheinland into southern Germany where he participated in the liberation of the Landsberg Concentration Camp.  He finished the war drinking wine in Reichmarshall Hermann Goering’s wine cellar after his and other 101^st Airborne units captured Hitler’s mountain-top estate, The Berghof, in the Alps near Obersalzburg, Austria.After discharge from the Army, he returned to Albany and began working in the local oilfields on drilling rigs for the A.V. Jones Oil Company and later as manager of the Lewis Wheat & Sons Butane Co.  He also spent time in Dallas working for the BF Goodrich tire company.On Saturday, September 22, 1951, he married Maxine Williams in Baird, Texas.  In 1952, they moved to Midland where as an independent owner he opened a Humble service station on Highway 80, east of downtown on what is now Front Street.  In 1961, he opened a new service station at the corner of Avenue A and Scharbauer Drive where he worked until his retirement in 1980.  Following his retirement he spent much of his time working with his brother Evan raising Herford and Longhorn cattle on a small ranch they jointly owned near Albany.Murrie and Maxine also enjoyed traveling especially within Texas but also to other parts of the US visiting Hawaii, Florida, New England during the fall, New Mexico and Arizona.  Throughout his life, Murrie loved the outdoors taking his family on camping trips to Colorado and other vacation trips through the Southwest.  He loved watching indoor baseball at the Astrodome in Houston where his admiration of the architecture of the structure usually outweighed the poor performance of the Astros.  Murrie’s first love always remained the Dallas Cowboys which he followed religiously since the team was formed reveling in their victories and agonizing over their losses.  Murrie also took great pride in providing Midland’s young men with jobs at his service station.  No matter who asked for a job he never told an applicant no giving everyone an opportunity.  Countless local young men got their first jobs working at Easter’s Exxon. Murrie and Maxine silently contributed financially to many of these young men’s tuitions after leaving for college.Murrie was also a supporter of his sons’ academic and athletic efforts from Little League baseball and YMCA football through their participation at Lee High School and beyond.  Later, his grandchildren continued with baseball, football and volleyball and while his three great-grandchildren are too young to participate, Murrie was sure they would continue the family tradition.  He was a great story-teller and always seemed to have a new story to share with his family which almost always involved some situation he found himself in over the course of his long life and he could always find the humor in almost any situation.  He loved good jokes, laughter, good food and occasionally a cold beer, and a little Red Man.Murrie is preceded in death by his parents, wife of 58 years Maxine and brothers Evan and Clarence Jr.  Survivors include sons Bob and his wife Diane Easter of Midland and Jim and his wife Laurie of Houston, as well as grandchildren Chris and wife Myndi of Midland, Stephanie and husband Charles Foster of Dallas, Jessica of Houston and Allison of Boulder, Colorado, and great grandchildren Drew, Vivienne and Sadie.Services are scheduled for 10:00am on Tuesday, January, 27, 2015 at Nalley-Pickel & Welch Chapel in Midland under the direction of Rev. Roy Colvin, a long-time family friend with interment at Albany Cemetery in Albany, Texas.  The family requests donations be made to Buckner Children & Family Services, 425 W. Pecan St., Midland, TX 79705.,