(I've been thinking that my dad's Memorial needed some biographical information and so this is the first attempt. Most likely I'll change it later. - Paul Norman Nix, 03 January 2016 ... UPDATED 07 May 2016)

Sidney Oran Nix (he was known as 'Oran' by everyone so far as I know) was born in December 1907 out in the country a bit from Lytton Springs (Texas) on a piece of land (originally I believe that it may have been a 'Section' - 640 Acres) known as 'The Nix Place'. His parents, Gertrude Perry Nix and Norman Nix, were both from families that had roots in central Texas going back to the middle of the 19th century.

I believe that it was during his childhood that my dad moved with his parents to the small town of Dale (Texas) which was roughly 15 miles from where he'd been born (near Lytton Springs) - and Dale is where the Norman Nix family stayed.

My dad was the eldest of four children : Oran (my dad), Donald, 'Chief' (Leon Eugene) and Frances (a girl and the 'baby' of the family).

The three Nix boys were all in their early 20s during the central Texas oil boom of the early 1930s and at one-time-or-another they all worked in the oil fields (dad's brothers Donald & Chief stayed in the oil industry and made their careers there).

My dad found jobs out of the oil field and at one time 'kept books' for the general store in Dale (UPDATED 07 May 2016 - It was the 'O.T. Moore Store'). He went to a 'business school' in San Antonio (the spelling isn't correct but the name was pronounced 'Draums' Business School).

Dad met my mother, Mildred Allen (living in San Marcos at the time) at a social gathering in Dale while mom was visiting her brother Hermon and his wife Sarah (Hermon was teaching school in Dale in the 1934 period). They were married in January 1935 in San Marcos and set-up house-keeping in Lockhart, living in a couple of apartments at first and then later buying a house on Fir Street.

My knowledge of the other jobs my dad held during this period is very incomplete but I've heard that at one time he had a job working for Glossermann Chevrolet (at least one time he drove an automobile transporting truck to St Louis to pick up a load of new cars) and for several years he worked in county (Caldwell County) government with a job in the courthouse (on the square in Lockhart).

When World War II started dad (by that time he was Assistant County Tax Assessor for Caldwell County) was too old to be drafted but after some time (I don't know how long) he decided that he should join-up and he and my mom sold many of their household possessions (putting other things in storage), sold their car and house (my mom either moved into an apartment or with family), and dad enlisted in the Army (as a little boy in the 1950s I used to look at the black-and-white photographs taken of my dad when he was in the Army). Dad went through Army basic training at Camp Roberts in California but he didn't get shipped overseas. My knowledge of what happened is very spotty but I believe due to his age (he turned 34 a week after the Pearl Harbor attack in Dec 1941) the Army gave him the chance to get out early ... which he accepted (I don't know the details but he was an Honorably Discharged Veteran).

By the late 1940s dad was working for an accounting firm (the J.A. Phillips Company) and he and mom were living in Houston (at first they lived in an apartment in 'The Heights'). The Phillips company had a contract with Houston Lighting & Power (H,L&P) to set up an accounting department and dad was part of the team working that effort. While he was helping to set up the accounting department H,L&P made dad an offer to go to work for them which he accepted.

(I was born in July 1950 by which time my folks owned a home in the 'Oak Forest' section of (then) northwest Houston.)

At the time of his death in late May 1962 (heart attack) dad was head of the 'Plant Accounting' Department at H,L&P, working at 'The Electric Building' in downtown Houston.

(comments; 20 Apr 2024 - from Paul N. Nix)

I've just found an on-line copy of my father's obituary that was published in the Lockhart Post-Register newspaper. It shows that the pallbearers at his funeral were : Weldon Fielder, William Bellamy, O.T. Moore Jr., Hilton Scott, Norman Dorsey and R.B. ('Buddy') Fowler. Mr. Fielder, Mr. Bellamy and Mr. Moore were long-time friends of my dad and mother going back to the late 1930s in Lockhart. Mr. Scott and Mr. Dorsey were neighbors in Houston with Mr. Scott working for Houston, Lighting & Power Company like my dad (they sometimes car-pooled). Mr. Fowler was a brother of Lillian Nix who was married to 'Chief' Nix, my dad's youngest brother.

(comments; 30 May 2022 - from Paul N. Nix)

For over 45 years my father's date-of-death was incorrectly shown on his tombstone. The incorrect date-of-death shown was May 24, 1962. I had my father's date-of-death corrected (to May 26, 1962) at the same time as my mother's date-of-death was added to the tombstone in the fall of 2007 (after her death in late July).