Visitation will be from 6 – 8 p.m. Friday, November 29 at Memorial Funeral Chapel in Bryan. Memorial service will be held at 2:00 p.m. Saturday at A&M Church of Christ, interment will follow services at Rest-Ever Memorial Park Cemetery.
James was born in Bryan, Texas, on September 28, 1918. His parents, Jan Mendl and Frantiska Drozd Mendl, immigrated to Bryan in 1911 from what is today the Czech Republic. Much of his youth was spent learning English from his neighborhood friends, “the Bond boys”, as he called them. James also worked in his father’s Mendl and Hornak Uniform Tailor Shop at North Gate in College Station. His job was making button holes in Aggie uniforms. After skipping his first grade year because he, as the baby of the family, wanted to stay home with his mom, he eventually graduated from Bryan High School in 1937.
After a year at Tarleton State College, James entered Texas A&M, only to be drafted into the United States Army before the last semester of his senior year. He served 3 years and 9 months. Returning from the war, James graduated from A&M and, in 1947, married the love of his life Ruby Hall Davis who happened to live down the street from where he grew up at 811 Cole Street.
James worked many years at the College Station Post Office at Northgate. After his retirement he and Ruby, a long-time teacher in the Bryan school system, were busy entertaining their grandchildren.
James is preceded in death by his wife, Ruby; his parents; his brothers, Jerry and Johnny; and his sisters, Helen and Francis.
He is survived by two sons, James and Cindy Eulenfeld Mendl of Round Rock, Texas, Eddy and Tammy Molder Mendl of Abilene, Texas; and daughter, Betty Lynn Mendl and Ronda Johnson of Hutto, Texas. He is also survived by five grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.
In lieu of flowers the family suggests memorials to Arms of Hope, Cherokee Home for Children, Scottish Rite Hospital, or Hospice Austin.
