Chevis Randle Cleveland, Jr. was born Fort Worth, Texas, to Lois Guhl Cleveland and Chevis R. Cleveland, Sr. in 1942 on Christmas Eve. He grew up in Granbury, Texas, with his younger brother, John Charles Cleveland. His father served as postmaster in Granbury where Chevis played football in high school and graduated in 1961.
He attended Tarleton State in Stephenville, Texas before transferring to The University of Texas
at Austin. There he graduated in 1965 with a degree in American Studies. He studied law briefly at
the university but left to join the Peace Corps. He served as a teacher in the Republic of Ghana
in West Africa.
Back in the United States he taught junior high students in Hyde Park, N.Y. before joining IBM as a computer programmer, a career that he kept for over twenty-five years. While in New York, he met Sue Meredith Whiteside and, not long afterward, they were married in Bermuda on October 4, 1974.
Chevis moved his family to Austin in the mid-1980s where he and Sue raised three children. Chevis continued to work at the IBM complex until retirement. Later he took an assignment with Computer Science Corporation.
Once their children were grown and launching careers of their own, Sue and Chevis bought a retirement home in Durango, Colorado. They returned to Austin in 2012 when Chevis was diagnosed with early stage Alzheimers’. In the nine years since, Chevis renewed old acquaintances, rediscovered Austin walking paths, became a regular at public libraries, continued to travel, entertained in his home, and added to his store of enduring friendships.
When the course of his life reached the end, it was in a comfortable place, propped up by quilts and pillows designed and sewn by his artist wife, the walls dressed in her framed watercolors, oils and felting, windows open to the lush garden. In person and in spirit with him that day were his wife, Sue; his daughter and her husband, Taya and Sed Keller of Colorado Springs, Colorado; his son and his wife, Scott and Emily Cleveland of San Antonio; his son, Shane Cleveland of Austin; his brother and his wife, John and Connie Cleveland of Granbury; and his grandchildren, Emilia and Ashlynn Keller of Colorado Springs, Colorado. His parents, Lois and Chevis Cleveland, preceded him in death.
A celebration of Chevis’ life will be held at Cook-Walden/Forest Oaks on 6300 W. William Cannon, Austin, Texas on June 20th at 3:00 pm.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that friends honor Chevis’ memory with contributions to organizations that he admired and supported, including the American Civil Liberties Union, Battleground Texas, Austin Pets Alive and Hospice Austin.
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