Melvin Curtis Roe

Melvin Curtis Roe went to be with the Lord on May 1, 2013. He was born September 8, 1921 in Wingate, Texas, the son of Sessil and Vera Sparkman Roe and the second of five siblings. His early years were spent in east Texas in the Sulphur Springs area, enjoying summers on his grandfather’s farm. The family later moved to Mission, Texas, where Curt graduated high school. He loved sports and played on the school’s football and track teams. One of his teammates would eventually coach the Dallas Cowboys.

Curt and his brother Jim joined the Navy in 1940. They served in the Pacific, and Curt fondly recalled time spent in Australia and the islands. He was aboard ship off the coast of Hawaii on December 7, 1941 and served his country for the duration of the war as a Storekeeper, Second Class. The one wartime experience that Curt would talk about was the sinking of his ship, the USS Chicago.

After the war, Curt apprenticed with his father to become a barber, a trade that he practiced until his retirement in 2005. He worked for a time in Colorado Springs and then settled in Dallas, serving for more than sixty years in the Casa Linda area. During this time, a mutual friend introduced Curt to a young lady from Plano, Texas. While that meeting was not a love connection, she did have a cute auburn-haired older sister. After a four-year courtship involving hundred-mile roundtrips between Plano and Dallas on country roads through farmland and cow pastures, Curt married Billie Jean Burch on June 12, 1954. They spent the next fifty-seven years building a life together.

In his leisure time, Curt was a long-time member of Casa View Baptist Church. He loved to fish and take family vacations to the Colorado mountains, South Padre Island, and Florida. In later years, Curt and Billie had the opportunity to visit the Pacific Northwest, British Columbia, and Glacier National Park, which they especially enjoyed. At home, Curt enjoyed going out to eat, indulging his sweet tooth, and spending time with his kids and grandkids.

Curt is survived by his daughter and son-in-law Susan and Kevin Frank of Trophy Club, TX; daughter and son-in-law Sherry Roe and Gerry White of Irving, TX; son Alan Roe of Carrollton, TX; and grandchildren Stephen and Caitlin Frank of Trophy Club, TX.