is today, October 9, 2009. Rex Gupton took the hand of Verna Mae Giesler in marriage on October 9, 1949, in the home of Charley and Neva Ellis in West Columbia, Texas. My dad's older brother, Judge Thurman Morris Gupton, performed the wedding ceremony in the Ellis's home, which is located a mere block away from where my grandparents' house stood in 1949. I sure wish mom and dad were here today to celebrate their 60th anniversary. Cancer claimed my wonderful mother at the age of 70 in 1996, so their 46th anniversary was the last these two true characters were allowed to spend together. Alzheimer's disease and heart failure were the culprits that eventually closed the book on my father's life in 2001. Ol' Rex died just four months shy of his 80th birthday. The photo above is how I would want to always remember my parents, having a great time with good friends and family members. The top picture was taken in Bandera, Texas, long before I was born. My parents loved to dance and both were "light on their feet" when a little sawdust could be spread on a wooden dance floor. Both my mother and father often told me how much they loved to spend time in Bandera when they were in the early years of their marriage. My mom is on the right and my dad on the left in the Bandera photo above. Their best friends, Louis and Maxine Wilson, are seated at the table with them, throwing back a few beers at a dance hall in the early 1950s. The lower photo was taken of my parents in the mid-fifties when they took a cross-country trip to Tennessee with my father's younger brother Hank and his wife Terry and their son "Little Hank" to visit Terry's family in Jackson, Tennessee. And the photo at top left is one of my favorites of the two people I loved the most as a child, my mother and father. I took that photo in front of the feed store in West Columbia that my parents ran for 26 years. They were both very proud of the plants and vegetables they sold at Gupton Feed and Ranch Supply, so I encouraged them to pose for my camera one sunny day when I captured them on film for posterity. Photos such as these displayed on my blog today are all we have left of Rex and Verna Gupton, so many years now after their deaths. The memories of them each of their offspring cherishes, that each grandchild, every niece and nephew and dear friend clings to in the present day, will always remain strong. So today, on the 60th anniversary of their marriage in 1949, our parents are toasted by their children and grandchildren. "Happy Anniversary" Rex and Verna, from your sons Cody and Tracy, your daughter Kelli, and from all the grandchildren and great-grandchildren who today carry on your great name and family tradition.
Talk about "planned parenthood," my siblings and I were all born three years apart. My older brother Samuel Cody Gupton was born October 30, 1953, I came along in January 1957, and our baby sister, Kelli Renee Gupton, joined the family on March 22, 1960. The three of us had the greatest parents, each of us continues today trying to make our parents proud, and hoping to pass along as many of their favorable traits as we can to our own children. The photo of my daddy eating watermelon was taken on a Father's Day in Baytown, Texas, at my Uncle Hank and Aunt Terry's house. And the other picture of my mom and dad was taken in the backyard of Daddy's older brother, Judge Thurman Gupton and his wife Gladys in West Columbia on the day of my cousin Angie's wedding to Jack Middleton.
Rex and Verna Gupton, who would have been married 60 years today, were photographed by their middle child, Tracy Gupton (me), in the photos above. I have loved taking pictures since I was a teenager growing up in West Columbia, and my mother and father were always willing models for their shutterbug son.
An Easter Sunday family photo was taken of the Gupton clan around 1991 in front of my parents' house in West Columbia. My wife and I and our sons now reside in the same home that I grew up in as a child on Gupton Lane. Standing in back, from left to right, are my father Rex, sister-in-law Andrea, my mother Verna, and my wife Peggy. Representing the younger generation of Guptons are, in front, from left to right, Blake Gupton, Dustin Mosteit, Rex Layne Gupton, Haylie Mosteit, Bret Gupton and Brian Gupton. And our family dog, Pearl Mae "Pupper" Bodine, couldn't be left out of the family portrait.
The two photos above were taken on my birthday when my family gathered at my parents' house in West Columbia to celebrate either my 34th or 35th birthday. There is no date on the back of the picture but my youngest son Blake appears to be about three years old, so if this was taken in 1991 then I would be turning 34. That's me, the birthday boy, on the right with my mother and father and, like Fred McMurray, "My Three Sons." Brian is standing behind me, Bret is in his grandmother's lap, and Blake is sitting on his "Paw" Rex's knee. Seated together on their living room couch, some 41 to 42 years after their 1949 wedding, are my parents, Rex and Verna Gupton.
