Hillen Armour Munson II

     Hillen Armour Munson II was born on 13 March 1909 in Angleton, Brazoria County, Texas.^2,3 He was the son of Milam Stephen Munson and Carrie Diggs.¹ He married Betty Bingham, daughter of Joe Bingham and Mamie Pattison, on 18 December 1939 in Brazoria County, Texas.⁴ He died on 27 November 1969 in Harris County, Texas, at age 60.¹ He was buried in Munson Cemetery, Bailey's Prairie, Brazoria County, Texas.⁵
     
     Armour was named for his uncle Hillen Armour Munson who was killed just six months after his namesake’s birth.⁶ He grew up in Angleton and graduated from Angleton High School.⁶ He studied engineering at Texas A&M College for two years. Thereafter he returned to Angleton and engaged in cattle ranching for the rest of his life.⁶

     Armour and Betty owned a small house in Angleton, the Bingham plantation at Chenango, and a beautiful home near Rice University in Houston. Although the writer is quite sure they were wealthy, there was nothing pretentious about Cousin Armour. Only at his daughter Mimi's wedding did I ever see him in anything other than a long-sleeved khaki shirt, khaki pants tucked into cowboy boots, and a felt Stetson, no matter the season. He always wore his curly hair a little long so that it curled out from under his hat, and he claimed that like a sheep, he needed a shear only once a year. He looked more at home on a horse than in his ritzy Houston neighborhood. In the 1930s, he and his cousin George Kennedy owned a butcher shop in Angleton. However, he was primarily a cattleman. He ran cows on his land at Bailey's Prairie, and my father, Joe Munson, often helped him when it was time to ship, brand, mark, drench, vaccinate, castrate the bull calves, etc., and Cousin Armour reciprocated. I usually tagged along on those occasions, and I well remember Daddy, who was obsessed with punctuality, always saying that there was no need to get in a hurry because Armour was always late. Nevertheless, we were invariably there at or before the appointed hour, and the fire was built and the coffee on boiling in a blue granite pot before Cousin Armour showed up. When he died suddenly of a heart attack at age 60, the family lost one of its most beloved and colorful characters.