Frederick Maedgen Knapp, Jr.

Freddy was born on the 15th of October 1942, and passed away peacefully on Monday, the 24th of March 2025, at Methodist Hospital in Houston from a heart condition. He was 82 years of age. His parents were Edith Smith Knapp and Lt. Col. Frederick Maedgen Knapp of Calvert. Freddy began first grade at age 5 in Calvert, then following WWII moved with his parents to Brownsville, and to Houston where he attended River Oaks Elementary School. For middle and high school, he attended The Kinkaid School, where he played all sports and was co-captain of the football and basketball teams with his friend, Alan Port. He proudly crowed that each Friday during pep rallies their chant would be “Get Ready for Freddy.”

After graduating from high school in 1960, he chose to attend SMU, but his heart was at Texas A&M, from which his dad and all the men in the Knapp family graduated. However, he decided he did not want to go to a school where there were no girls. At SMU, Freddy was a fun date because he drove a different Corvette each year (courtesy of Knapp Chevrolet), and he loved nice restaurants. He made many longtime friends in his Kappa Sigma fraternity, and at the beginning of his junior year, his buddy, Pat Bennett Moore, fixed him up on a blind date with a freshman Tri Delta pledge from Crockett named Linda Knox.

After SMU graduation in 1964, Freddy entered SMU Law School, where he excelled. While there, he was chief counsel of the SMU Legal Aid Clinic, which offered free legal services to deserving clients. He was invited to be a member of Order of the Coif, an honorary society noted by high attainments in the study of law and was also a member of Phi Alpha Delta law fraternity. After graduating in 1967 near the top of his class, he was invited to join Andrews, Kurth, Campbell, and Jones law firm in Houston, now Hunton Andrews Kurth, where he practiced corporate litigation for forty years, before joining Hicks Thomas law firm until retirement.

After passing the State Bar of Texas and spending one month on the job at Andrews & Kurth, he and Linda Knox were married on the 19th of August 1967, in Crockett. He devoted his time and talents to work, family, friends, and love of the great outdoors through hunting and fishing. He grew up in a family of hunters who spent every Thanksgiving at the Knapp family ranch in South Texas near Raymondville or at a hunting camp near Calvert, and this tradition continued with his own children and grandchildren. For the last twenty-five years, he shared a hunting lease near Beeville with Bruce Wallace and sons.

In 1974, Freddy and Linda’s first child, Dorian Elizabeth Knapp was born, followed by Emily Knox Knapp, and Frederick Maedgen Knapp, III. He taught them all the joys of nature and how to sit quietly in a deer blind and watch the sun come up while seeing rabbits, birds, and deer awake to a new day. They also learned the art of fishing with patience and skill to land the big bass or crappie at the family lake house on Spring Creek Country Club Lake in Crockett. His favorite spots were Buras, Louisiana for speckled trout and redfish and Texas lakes with his buddies in West Houston Bass Club for the fresh water big mouth bass. As the children grew up and left the nest, Linda joined him on one of his Alaska adventures and became “hooked” also. Together they enjoyed the beauty of more Alaska salmon fishing and soon after made their way to New Zealand to try to catch the elusive brown trout. The rivers of Argentina were a destination, as well as mountain streams and rivers of Montana, Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado.

Freddy Knapp lived his life with integrity and high principle whether in the courtroom or in a fishing boat. Every man or woman counted the same, regardless of station in life, and he never judged another person. He was loyal, honest, witty, and never made excuses. He made no pretense about himself or others, was a faithful husband, father, and friend, and loved his Lord and Savior with all his heart, soul, and mind.

In his later years, he was faced with many health challenges which would have taken most folks to their knees, but Freddy persevered and fought back. He was always hopeful and positive. Each time we thought he could not recover, he showed us how valuable life was to him, and he got back on his feet. Many of his friends called him their “Hero.” To his family, he was the rock and force we relied on.

He is survived by his loving and devoted wife of more than fifty-seven years, Linda Knox Knapp; daughter, Dr. Elizabeth Knapp and her husband Robert M. Eversz; grandchildren, Augustus Maedgen Eversz, and Edith Abigail Eversz; daughter, Emily Knapp Behrens and her husband Bruce Russell Behrens; grandchildren, Eli Russell Behrens, and Callie Knox Behrens; son, Frederick Maedgen Knapp III and his wife Caroline Harper Knapp; grandchildren, Frederick Knox Knapp, Andrew Nolty Knapp, and Amelia Harper Knapp. He is also survived by his brother, George Larry Knapp; niece, Meredith Knapp Holland and her husband Chris Holland, and their son Hudson Holland; niece, Katie Knapp; nephew, Connor Knapp; sister-in-law, Dorian Knox Sullivan and her husband Carroll Sullivan; nephew, Chad Sullivan and his wife Supawn Sullivan; niece, Campbell Sullivan; and too many Knapp cousins to name.

He also leaves his friends in the St. Luke’s Randy Smith Bible Study Class, River Oaks Breakfast Club, Houston West Bass Wranglers, St. Martin’s Wednesday Morning Bible Study, A&K First Tuesday Lunch Bunch, Hicks Thomas Law Firm and his many hunting and fishing buddies.

Special thanks to his longtime Internist, Dr. Martin White; and his caregiver, breakfast buddy, and friend, Jermaine Doleman.

Friends are cordially invited to a visitation with the family from five o’clock in the afternoon to seven o’clock in the evening on Monday, the 31st of March, in the library and grand foyer of Geo. H. Lewis & Sons, 1010 Bering Drive in Houston.

A memorial service is to be conducted at eleven o’clock in the morning on Tuesday, the 1st of April, at St. Luke’s United Methodist Church, 3471 Westheimer Road in Houston, where Dr. Tom Pace is to officiate.

Immediately following all are invited to greet the family during a reception to be held in nearby Fellowship Hall.

For those unable to attend, you may join the livestream by selecting the “Join Livestream” icon in the service information section. You may also take a moment to share fond memories and words of comfort and condolence with his family by selecting the “Add a Memory” icon.