In Memory

Edmond Earl 'Bull' Durham (Lawn High School Teacher/Coach)

Edmond Earl 'Bull' Durham

(August 28, 1915 - December 31, 2003)

Edmond Earl 'Bull' Durham, son of Edmond Meadows Durham and Jessie Matilda Baker, married to Elsie Louise Straley, then married to Willie Deane Carson and buried in Rose Hill Cemetery, Merkel, Taylor County, Texas.  Lawn Independent School District High School Teacher and Coach (1953-1956).

 

Earl "Bull" Durham (also often called "Coach") grew up in Rotan, TX. He was an outstanding athlete and played college football at Abilene Christian University. He was listed as G/C (guard/center) and weighed in at 178 lbs. in the Fall of 1938.

In college, he met Elsie L. Straley and they were married. Earl immediately joined the Navy and became a physical fitness trainer for Naval Officers at Columbia University in New York City, NY. Elsie and daughter Reba missed their "Bully" badly, so Elsie and Reba left the Texas ranch and boldly moved to New York to reunite the young family.

When the war ended, they returned to Texas. Earl worked on the family farm. He also coached at Lohn, a nearby Texas rural community. In 1947, they had their second child, Tommy Dean Durham. Earl eventually gave up farming and decided on a new career as a TV repairman. Via mail order, he taught himself the new profession. He began to work in Abilene at TV shops. In 1962, James Britton was born.

Five years later, in 1968, Earl and Elsie were divorced and Earl moved to nearby Abilene, Texas. That same year, Earl married Willie Deane Carson, and they made Abilene their home. He lived there until his death in 2003.