Elzo was the second of five children born to Zachariah Houston and Julia Ann (Ownby) Been. He married Fannie Pearl Cannon in 1914 and they had two children: Truett Elzo and Ruby Nell.

Brownwood Bulletin, Brownwood, TX

September 28, 1970

CARBON - Funeral for Elzo Been, 86, former Eastland County judge who lived at Elgin, was to be 2 p.m. today at the Carbon Baptist Church with the Rev. C. O. Clements of Cisco officiating, assisted by the Rev. Ray Head of Elgin.

Burial was to be in New Murray Cemetery at Carbon under the direction of Newby Funeral Home of Elgin.

Judge Been died Saturday afternoon in an Elgin hospital after a long illness.

Born Nov. 9. 1883 in Arkansas, he married Fannie Cannon Sept. 20, 1914 at Rising Star.

He formerly serviced as district judge, district attorney and district clerk at Eastland County. A member of the Texas State Bar Assn. over 50 years, he was also a deacon in the Baptist church.

Judge Been received his education at Howard Payne College and Cumberland Law University at Lebanon, Tenn.

Survivors include his wife; one son, Truett Been of Oklahoma City; one daughter, Mrs. Sid Davis of Elgin; four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

(Texas Bar Journal—date unknown)

Elzo Bean

Former 88th Judicial District court Judge Elzo Been, 86, died September 26, 1970 in Elgin.

Judge been was born near Greenwood Arkansas, on November 9, 1883. He attended Hankins Normal in Gorman, and there met Fannie Cannon, whom he later married. Judge Been then attended Howard Payne College in Brownwood, and in 1913 earned his LL.B. from Cumberland University Law School.

Admitted to the Texas bar June 19, 1913, Judge Been began practice in Rising Star during 1913-14. In 1915, he opened his practice in Eastland and remained there until his retirement.

In Eastland county, he had served as deputy tax collector before studying law from 1925 to 1932, retiring in that year, though he faced certain re-election.

He emerged from retirement in 1950 to serve as county-district attorney for a year.

Speaking of his decision to leave the bench, Judge Been said, "I just don't like it. I worried too much about other people's problems—whether or not I had made the right decision in a case."

Judge Been held the judgeship when the oil boom broke and released a flood of unfamiliar litigation upon the county courts which Judge Been recalled as "an avalanche descending upon us."

After his retirement in 1932, Judge Been and his wife settled on their expansive farm in the community of Long Branch, where they reared their family, grew livestock and oversaw the acres they rented to neighboring farmers.

His wife, whom he married in 1914, survives him, and lives in Elgin, as does their daughter, Mrs. Syd Davis. A son, Truett Been of Oklahoma City, and four grandchildren also survive.