Eldred Clement Sanders

Funeral services for Eldred Clement Sanders, 81, of Port Lavaca will be held at 10 a.m. on Saturday, February 5, 2011, at Richardson-Colonial Funeral Home in Port Lavaca. A time of visitation will be held prior to the funeral service from 9-10 a.m. Burial will be at Greenlawn Gardens Cemetery.

Sanders died on Tuesday, February 1, at Memorial Medical Center in Port Lavaca. He was born December 28, 1929, at Kanorado, Kansas, the son of Roy E. Sanders (1897-1987) and Nellie Eller Sanders (1900-1977). They served as ministers in the Christian Church Disciples of Christ. He lived in Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and East Texas during his youth as his parents traveled to different locations as pastors.

Sanders was a 1948 graduate of Texas High School in Texarkana, Texas, and a 1953 graduate of Southern State College (now Southern Arkansas University) in Magnolia, Arkansas. He earned a Master's Degree at East Texas State University in Commerce in 1956.

He began his teaching career in 1953 at Taylor, Arkansas, and came to Port Lavaca in 1954, teaching at Jefferson School for one year and moving to Travis Junior High in 1955. He remained there as a math teacher, specializing in Algebra, until his retirement in 1989.

Sanders married Betty Jean Allison (1934-2008) on August 25, 1956, in Texarkana, and she taught with him in Port Lavaca from 1956-60 at Jefferson School, at Roosevelt Elementary from 1963-87 and at Jackson Elementary from 1987-89.

They had two children, Roy Edward Sanders, born September 1, 1960, in Forth Worth, and a daughter, Karen Denise Sanders, born April 23, 1962, in Port Lavaca. Karen died of complications from Cystic Fibrosis on May 12, 1974, in Port Lavaca.

His primary hobby was woodworking – first building all of the furniture in his home and then numerous wooden toy replicas of trucks and heavy equipment. His work was often exhibited at the Calhoun County Fair, and he won many prizes. Many projects were also donated to friends in Port Lavaca. Sanders first learned basic woodworking from his grandfather, John Sanders (1870-1945) of Witter, Arkansas, but developed his own style over time – drawing on many influences. Hilary Ford, a shop teacher at Travis, was an early mentor.

He was a past member of the Port Lavaca Lions Club and the Calhoun County Retired Teachers Association. He was also a charter member of First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Port Lavaca, worshiping there from 1954-2004 until the church closed. He later attended and joined First United Methodist Church in Seadrift.

He is survived by his son, Roy Edward Sanders of Dime Box, a daughter-in-law, Kathy Sanders of Temple; grandchildren, Charles Edward Sanders of Temple and Elizabeth Ostine Sanders of Austin; and two great-grandsons, Darin Logan Van Hoose and Julius Anthony Jasso.

He was preceded in death by his parents; his daughter; his wife; and a brother, Merlin Leroy Sanders (1923-2006) of Lebanon, Tennessee.

Pallbearers will be Jerry Aleman, Ernest Dierlam, Dinnie Billings, Joe Fielder, Butch Jennings and Mike Pfeifer.

Honorary pallbearers will be members of the First United Methodist Church of Seadrift, retired teachers of Calhoun County, the Guzman family and everyone at El Patio and Wagon Train restaurants.

Memorials may be made to First United Methodist Church in Seadrift.

Words of comfort may be shared with the family at www.richardsoncolonial.com.