Joseph Waddy Munson II

     Joseph Waddy Munson II was born on 3 October 1896 at the Van Place, Brazoria County, Texas.^1,2,3 He was the son of Henry William Munson III and Sarah Kate Cahill. He married Myrtle Seymour Bryan on 22 August 1917 in Brazoria County, Texas.⁴ He died on 11 May 1951 in Houston, Harris County, Texas, at age 54.⁵ He was buried in Angleton Cemetery, Angleton, Brazoria County, Texas.³
     
     Waddy attended school in Angleton and graduated from from Angleton High School. Afterward, he attended Houston Business College. He married Myrtle Bryan when he was only nineteen, she eighteen, and the young couple first lived in Angleton in a home Waddy's father had previously bought from his brother Bascom. They sold their home in or before 1920 and moved to Port Arthur, Jefferson County, Texas, where he worked for the Texas Company (Texaco). In or before 1925, they moved to Houston and he worked for the Humble Oil Company (Exxon). They moved back to Angleton in 1932 when Waddy acquired the Humble Oil distributorship there. Their first home had since burned, and they re-purchased the lot where they built a new home. They were living there when in 1951, Waddy died of a cerebral hemorrhage in a Houston hospital. Eight years previous, their only son, Bryan, was reported missing in action in the Asian Pacific. Williamson quotes Jennie Kate's comments on her father's death in his manuscript: "I truly believe that he died of a broken heart, for he never accepted my brother's death. His grief was so great that until the day he died he never gave up hope that Bryan would be found." Myrtle continued to live in the Angleton home until 1979 when she moved to Houston to be near her daughter.

     Writer's note: I was "crazy" about Cou'in Waddy (we never pronounced the "s" in cousin). He was one of those people who probably everyone, but particularly children, love. I went often with Cuz (George Kennedy) when he helped Waddy work cattle, and quite often, Waddy helped George work his own when I was along. He and George were only a year apart in age and were particularly close. George always said they were raised together, and I have a studio photograph of three of the Kennedy children and Waddy taken together as if they were one family.

     In about 1948, the two families, George and Hattie Kennedy and Waddy and Myrtle Munson, went together and bought a summer cabin in Wimberley, Hays County, Texas, on the Blanco River. It was named Camp Cardinal. One of the first things I remember about going there was Cou'in Waddy tying to a cypress tree branch a pair of his wool long johns that we kids used to swing out over the river. We called it a "boom diddy," and would scream "boom diddy, boom diddy, boom diddy, BOOM," the last "boom" coming as we hit the water. My two brothers and I, and Waddy's three grandchildren who were about our ages, had many great adventures at Camp Cardinal.

     I was a baby when Bryan was lost in the war and never realized the grief Cou'in Waddy was suffering. He was just so much fun, and I don't remember him as a sad person. That is not to say I don't believe he was grieving. It's just not how I remember him. I was eight years old when he died, and I remember exactly where I was and how I reacted when my parents told me. It was the first time I had ever heard the phrase "passed away" and I thought at first they meant he had fainted. It was as if a terrible shock ran through me when they explained that he had died. It was made an even worse tragedy by the fact that a new wonder drug prescribed for, I think, the flu, probably caused his death. Many years after the fact, I saw a feature on television about the many deaths attributable to the drug before it was pulled from the market. I can't remember the name now, but I think it was one of the mycin drugs.