Max Tillman Barron Jr.

Dear Brother Max,  I have many fond memories of you in childhood, in school and through adult life.  As children living in the country I believe we had the most pure innocent fun.  We made mud pies topped with green china berries.  You told me how good they were so I ate the "mud"...you got in trouble.  We had corn cob fights, jumped out of the loft of the barn on to hay, you put me inside an old tire and rolled me till I got sick, we pulled radishes from the garden washed them at the windmill and ate them...some were very hot.  We swam in the San Gabriel River, laid out under the stars and tried to identify them.  Mother made us all have hobbies and you were into butterflies so we helped catch them.  We did not have electricity or an indoor bathroom and we gathered around the pot belly coal stove to keep warm in the winter and sprinkied down the sheets in the summer to keep cool.

 

After we moved to town and had indoor amenities we got involved in sports and they pretty much ruled our lives which we loved.  You and brother Don built a basketball goal in the back yard and gave me my first basketball.  When you worked at the Drug Store you would sneak me a milk shake and we acted as if we were passing money on the counter.  You were always generous with your earnings, in fact you were a generous man all your life.

 

I have many wonderful memories of you and admired all your talents.  You had great artistic ability, you were always interested in so many different things whether historical, studying caves, or looking at the stars and outer space.  You had difficulty expressing yourself on a personal basis  When I would say I love you, you would say "thank you", however I knew how you felt.  You gave us such beautiful cards and when I mentioned that to you, you said, "I look a long time for the right card because they say things I cannot". 

 

I am so thankful you married and had two wonderful sons, a beautiful daughter-in-law and grandchildren who all love you.  I am so grateful you were my brother.

Love from your little sister Cookie.

Max and Donald were three or four grades ahead of me.  The thing I remembered most about Max that he always respected we younger players.

He was always friendly, did not try to harass we younger players.  He was very sincere about everything he undertook.

The last time I remember being able to spend any quality time with Max and Donald was when they were at Schriener College.  Frank Luksa and I drove out there and spent the night with them.

I know Max is Up There being helpful to all those who enter and doing what the Lord wants done in a perfect way.

Bailey Marshall

My fondest memories of Uncle Max:

 

 

Max’s love and generosity were limitless.  Max was an excellent artist, scholar, and scientist.  He taught me how to make a greeting card and draw a cartoon cowboy on the front.  He taught me to swing a golf club, (it didn’t matter that I missed the ball each time), how to dig in the dirt and find amazing glass bottles, and how to eat raw oysters on a cracker with hot sauce when I was still a kid.  

 

I once watched Max working on an intricate pencil drawing from a photograph he took of an old farm house.  He sure loved those old farm houses!  Uncle Max was funny, fun to be with, and taught me how to laugh and how to love learning about art and nature. 

 

One of my favorite events was getting to make ice cream sundaes when he stayed with us one night when I was still in grade school.   Max took all four of us kids shopping to purchase three kinds of ice cream, three kinds of toppings, and three kinds of sauces with cherries to go on the top.  It was the best banana split I ever ate…and ate, and ate.

 

When all of our birthdays came up in December and January one year, Uncle Max took the four of us (Helen, myself, Bob, and Don) on a trip to the Gulfgate Mall in Houston.   He gave us each our own birthday money and told us to buy anything we wanted, but we had to include some type of book.  I bought the biggest Spanish to English dictionary I could find, plus a Barbie doll (I’m not sure what I was thinking).   Later, he took us to the Wyatt’s cafeteria at the mall for lunch, no limits.  We each had several entrees, chicken fried steak, fried chicken and who knows what else, plus lemon meringue pie, chocolate pie and more.  That was each person!

 

Whenever I asked Uncle Max where he was going, he would say, “down the road a piece”.   That’s what I will always think of now, Max is just down the road a piece.  One of Max’s favorite things to say was that we were “privileged characters”.  It was a privilege to have Max for my uncle.  

 

Lovingly,

Carolyn 

 

Getting a straight answer from Uncle Max was rare. 

 I guess I was about 6 or 7 years old when Max told me he was a ditch digger.

I thought that was about the coolest thing; and I believed that for a long time..............

 

One of my favorite sayings came from Max too;

"Pretty good for an amateur."

 

There were the wonderful magic tricks, trips to the park, rides in the car where we would get to take turns driving . I remember learning history , math and art from Max.

 

Artist, scholar, genius, teacher, comedian.

Kindhearted, patient , funny and caring.

Those are just a few of many memories of my uncle Max.

 

 

Helen