By Tracy Gupton
Columbia Historical Museum Board Member
Among the former judges being portrayed at the Saturday, Nov. 5 event “Meet Your Ancestors” at historic Columbia Cemetery will be longtime district judge Thurman Gupton. West Columbia attorney Wes Griggs, the son of Judge Gupton’s former law partner, the late Hall Griggs, will take on the persona of the well-respected jurist.
Other judges featured will be William Henry Burkhart, Wesley Mastin Holland, Robert Faickney and Reuben Burch Loggins Jr. Actors in period dress will be near the graves of the former judges and briefly bring them to life with biographical information about each judge.
Brazoria County Historical Museum Curator Michael Bailey will portray Judge Loggins, James Kowalik will be Judge Holland, Ben Tumlinson will portray Judge Faickney and Ben Pfeiffer will be Judge Burkhart.
Thurman Morris Gupton was born Nov. 11, 1911, in the small town of Boling, in neighboring Wharton County. He loved to tell people he was born on 11-11-11 and wore number 11 as the Roughnecks’ quarterback, stretching the truth when he would add that he tipped the scales at a whopping 11 pounds at birth. When he was 7-years old, his family relocated to West Columbia where Gupton was raised with his four siblings.
The eldest son of former West Columbia postmaster and grocery store owner Samuel Morris “Buff” Gupton and Eula Meadows Gupton, Thurman was the “big brother” to his sister Ruby Nell Gupton Fontenot and three brothers Rex, Aubrey and S.D. Gupton.
Thurman was the starting quarterback for the Roughneck football team and also played basketball in high school.
Judge Gupton and his wife, Gladys Stucker Gupton, eloped while seniors at West Columbia High School in 1930 and kept the news of their marriage from their parents. The story goes that the night of their elopement the newlyweds appeared in a play at the school where one of the lines Gladys had to deliver to Thurman was, “I wouldn’t marry you if you were the last man alive,” which brought gales of laughter from their fellow students in the audience who were aware of the pair’s recent nuptials. Gladys’s mother, Myrtle Stucker, was a teacher at the high school and had not yet been told by her daughter that she had become Mrs. Thurman Gupton earlier that day.
After graduating from West Columbia High School in 1930, Gupton attended Rice Institute in Houston, earning a BBA. He also attended Houston Engineering College, became a licensed surveyor, worked as an abstractor of land titles, labored in the oil fields of East and South Texas, and then earned his law degree from Houston Law School in 1940.
Thurman and Gladys were the parents of two daughters, Dolores and Peggy Lou. Like her mother before her, Peggy Lou Boone has been honored by the West Columbia Chamber of Commerce as “Woman of the Year.”
During World War II, Gupton attended the United States Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, and served as a U.S. Navy intelligence officer in all three theaters of the war. He remained active in the U.S. Naval Reserve for the next 30 years, retiring at the rank of captain.
All four Gupton boys served in the military during World War II, Rex in the Navy, Aubrey in the Army Air Corps and S.D. in the Army.
Following the war, Gupton practiced law in West Columbia until 1947, when he was elected county judge of Brazoria County. In 1950, Gov. Allen Shivers appointed him judge of the 23rd Judicial District, which encompassed Brazoria, Matagorda and Fort Bend counties. He served in this capacity for the next 26 years until retiring in 1976, at the age of 65.
Gupton made his home in West Columbia the rest of his life, becoming a civic leader, and, in 1969 was named West Columbia’s Outstanding Citizen by the local Chamber of Commerce.
In March 1976, Gov. Dolph Briscoe appointed Gupton a judge on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals following the resignation of W.A. Morrison. He served on the court in Austin until a successor was chosen in the 1976 general election, then retired from the bench and served as counsel to the Houston law firm of Kronzer, Abraham & Watkins.
Judge Gupton and Gladys were married 66 years. They were lovingly referred to as “Granddaddy” and “Two Mama” by grandchildren, Ace Brandt, Cindy Brandt Saville, Kim Danford Glaze and Billy Danford.
Following his death at the age of 84 on Aug. 20, 1996, it was mentioned at his funeral at Columbia United Methodist Church, where he had been a longtime member, that Judge Gupton was never opposed in re-election bids for the position of district judge.
Thurman and Gladys Gupton are buried at historic Columbia Cemetery where there are five generations of the Gupton family interred.
“Meet Your Ancestors” begins Saturday at 5:30 p.m. Enter through the main gates on Jackson Street across from Columbia United Methodist Church. Admission is free.
