Roll Call Tribute

[Passed away Sunday morning, January 21, 2018, per funeral home.]

Published in GoSanAngelo on Jan. 24, 2018

Harold Lavon Stephens(1927 - 2018)
Harold Lavon Stephens

San Angelo

Harold L. Stephens was born Sept. 3, 1927, five miles east of Eden in Concho Valley Texas. His mother, Alice Stephens, was weighing cotton the day he was born. She told her husband Jess, that she thought she would have the baby that night and Jess said that he had to go to the gin with a wagon load of cotton. Alice called her neighbor with a crank telephone and after she came over they called a doctor out of Eden and the doctor came out in a horse and buggy and delivered Harold Stephens that night.

Harold went to school seven years at Brady Valley and then finished high school in Eden and then went on to Texas A&M at 16 years of age. He was in C Troop Calvary in the Corps at A&M. He attended A&M for three years and was then drafted to serve in the Army. When he returned home from the army, he started work with his dad doing farming and ranching. They purchased and ranch in Eastern Colorado and Harold moved to Colorado to run the ranch. After a year in Colorado, Harold returned home to work with his dad in Eden. In 1950, Harold joined the Masonic Lodge, become a 32-degree Mason and worked his way up to district deputy of district 105. Harold joined the chapter and counsel commandry of York Rite and Scottish Rite.

In 1953 he married Peggy Shuffield from Brady, Texas. Their daughter, Lisa, was born in 1959. In 1971, Harold bought the Chevrolet dealership in Brady and ran it for four years. He and Peggy won several selling contests resulting in two trips to Europe, one to Brazil, and one to Hawaii. They sold the business in 1975. He and Peggy moved back to Eden and continued farming and ranching with Harold's father. In 1975 he purchased the Eden Elevator and Eden Wool and Mohair Company and sold it in 1979. In the following year Herald bought a ranch in Nebraska and ran it for two years before he bought a ranch in Kansas and also ran that ranch for two years. In about 1985 Harold sold both the ranches and came back to Texas to continue ranching and began to work in ranch real estate. He continued to ranch and was owner and operator of Stephens Ranch Real Estate. He retired at the age of 82.

Harold passed away in San Angelo, Texas, preceded in death by his parents, one brother, Wayne Stephens and wife Peggy Bell Stephens.

Survivors include his daughter, Lisa Stephens Price of San Angelo; granddaughter Kylie Bell Price of San Angelo; and special friend Lillian Stephens.

Service is at 2 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 25, 2018, in Eden Funeral Home Chapel with burial in Rest Haven Cemetery Brady.