- Date Of Birth: December 12, 1924
- Date Of Death: May 29, 2011
- State: Texas
Happy Richard Harris, December 12, 1924 – May 29, 2011.
Happy Richard Harris, 86, of Temple, Texas passed away on May 29, 2011 at Garden Estates Assisted Living Center in Temple, Texas after a long battle with leukemia and Alzheimer’s. Happy is survived by his loving wife of 60 years Ethel Jo Grissom Harris, daughters Deborah Jane Starkey and her husband Ben of Colorado Springs, CO, Lee Ann Foulger and her husband Paul of Spring, TX, and Kimberley Jo Clawson and her husband Jamie of Gatesville, TX, grandchildren Wayne, Paul, Luis, Elizabeth, Rachel and David, as well as Happy’s brothers Robert, James, Ray, sister Hazel and a host of loving relatives.
He was born in Austin, Texas on December 12, 1924, the sixth of 12 children born to Annie Katherine and William Fletcher Harris. Happy served his country in the US Army Air Corps during WW II from April 6, 1943 to Nov. 10, 1945 as an aircraft mechanic with the 426th Night Fighter Squadron comprised of 12 P-61s. After spending time in India waiting for all their aircraft to arrive, his squadron “flew over the hump” and was stationed in Kunming and then Chengdu, China. When he returned from the war and was discharged from active duty, he enlisted in the Army National Guard and worked as a helicopter mechanic for 18 years at Camp Mabry in Austin.
He then worked at Electro-Mechanics Company (EMCO) in Austin for 21 years as a machinist until his retirement in 1989. Happy met his future wife Jo at the Lowery Clinic in Gatesville, Texas where she worked as a nurse and they married on December 10, 1950. They moved to Austin in 1951 where their 3 daughters Debbie, Lee Ann and Kim were born, then moved to the country on 27 acres near Leander, TX in 1964 so his daughters could have horses. Happy and Jo moved from Leander to North Austin in 1983 where they lived for 9 years before moving to the rural Temple/Belton area in 1992 and then to Garden Estates Assisted Living in Temple in 2008.
During his retirement years, Happy was a very skilled woodworker and he made many pieces of doll furniture, as well as toys, child-sized rocking chairs and other decorative items. He also continued to use his machinist skills to make craft items on his lathe in his home workshop and now his grandson David has his lathe which Happy taught him to use. He enjoyed collecting stamps and had a very large collection. Besides being a woodworker, he learned from his father how to be a carpenter, plumber, electrician, gardener and general handy man. Every year he grew huge tomatoes, made delicious Christmas candies and many jars of fruit preserves which he generously shared with his family and friends.
Happy and Jo were very active volunteers for 5 years at Christian Farms-Treehouse in Temple where they helped the residents make wooden trains. He also donated his collection of hand water pumps to the Belton Museum where he gave frequent demonstrations. He and his wife were members of Belton First United Methodist Church from 1992 until his death in 2011.
