William Wright, Sr

William A. (Dub) Wright, Sr. age 94, of Colleyville and a former resident of Meridian passed away on Tuesday, February 23, 2016 at a Colleyville nursing facility.

Funeral services were held at 11:00 A.M., Saturday, February 27, 2016, in the Meridian First United Methodist Church. Rev. Kevin Wilson and Rev. Richard Creech officiated. Burial was in the Meridian Cemetery.

Pallbearers were Royce Turney, Patrick McKinley, John Walborn, David Stockard, Lucas Turner and Ray Miller.

Visitation was from 5 to 7 P.M., Friday, February 26, 2016, in the Lawson Funeral Home Chapel

The family requests that memorials may be made to Meridian First United Methodist Church, P.O. Box 334, Meridian, Texas, 76665.


Dub was born February 1, 1922, in Meridian, and spent his entire childhood there. He graduated from Meridian High School in 1939, and continued his studies at John Tarleton College, where he graduated in 1942. He went on to attend Texas A&M College, where he was in the Corps of Cadets and a member of the class of 1944. His studies at A&M were interrupted during World War II when he was inducted into the Army in 1942. Dub attended Officer's Candidate School at Camp Lee, Virginia, and was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in June, 1943. He was transferred to the China-Burma-India Theatre of Operations, serving as a re-mount officer (working with horses and mules) in the Quartermaster Corps with the 475th Infantry Division, headquartered in Kunming, China. After peace was declared in 1945, he was sent to Shanghai where he served as a courier officer until his discharge in 1946.

Dub returned to A&M in the fall of 1946 and completed his bachelor's degree in animal husbandry in January, 1947. After a year of teaching vocational agriculture to local veterans in Bellville, Texas, he accepted a sales position with American Cyanamid (Lederle Laboratories) in Waco. He married LaVerne Crain Lawson on June 22, 1948, in Meridian, and the couple lived in Waco until 1950 when they moved to Kansas City, Kansas, where Dub was given a new sales territory. In 1958 Dub accepted a sales position with Rite Care Poultry Company, and the family moved to Mansfield, Louisiana. During his 18-year career with the company, Dub managed plants in Logansport, Louisiana; Carthage, Texas and Nacogdoches, Texas.

Dub relocated the family to Houston in 1975 when Dub accepted a plant manager's job with City Poultry. He and his wife moved to Waco in 1980 where he took another plant manager's job. They returned to Meridian in 1981 when Dub started working for a petroleum exploration company. In 1987 he took a job as a security guard at the Comanche Peak nuclear power plant near Glen Rose, Texas. He retired in 1990 but remained active, serving as City Judge of Meridian during the 1990's.

He is preceded in death by his wife, LaVerne, his father, William W. Wright, his mother, Hattie Ford Wright, and his sisters, Marzee Gandy and Mary Wright, and a nephew, Ronnie Briley.

He is survived by his son, William A. (Andy) Wright, Jr. and wife, Carolyn, of Bellaire; daughter, Melea Wright Arlin and husband, Pat, of Fort Worth; niece, Dean Briley Davis and husband, Jerry, of Colleyville; nephew, Royce Turney and wife, Sidney, of Fort Worth; great-niece, Shana Davis McKinley and husband, Patrick; and their children, Kendal and Konlan of Colleyville; great-niece, Courtney Davis Walborn and husband, John; and their children, Jordyn and Cason of Keller; and numerous friends.