Earl Monroe Irby

During his first twelve years of life, Earl was shuffled between a couple of farms near Piedmont, South Carolina and another near Walhalla, South Carolina. During that time, both his father and his stepfather died of diseases common for that time. Just after the beginning of what would later be called the Great Depression, Earl’s mother accepted a rare job at the county hospital in Greenville, South Carolina. Her new job included room and board, but only for one adult. Earl was therefore sent to a regional boarding school at the Rabun Gap-Nachoochee School near Dillard, Georgia. In addition to the daily school classes, all students were required to work in the surrounding school farm acreage or participate with the maintenance chores around the school complex. Earl remained at the boarding school through his junior and senior high school years as well as two more years in their then junior college program. These were formative years for Earl, living in a disciplined environment of study, work, worship, and developing lasting friendships he would maintain throughout his life. The private boarding school still exists (rabungap.org) with an enthusiastic student body and a large alumni organization.

Earl was the annual multi-year reunion speaker in 1988. The school became universally famous in the 1970’s and 1980’s due to the publications of a series of books, The Foxfire Book I-XII. During a reunion three years ago, the alumni administrators made a video of Earl Irby as he told several stories about life on campus during the Depression years. Earl’s last visit to the school was just four months ago, June 2016.

When Earl left the boarding school, he moved to Detroit, Michigan to live a year and a half with his older sister and brother-in-law. He then returned to the Carolinas to attend the Western Carolina Teacher’s College (WCTC), now known as Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, North Carolina. Not long after moving to Cullowhee, Earl met his future wife, Virginia Hall, who lived on-campus with the family of her uncle, then the president of WCTC. A few years earlier while still in Georgia, Earl had developed an intense interest in art, and that interest extended into his time in Michigan. His enthusiasm of art continued after he moved to North Carolina, when he became — according to notes written by Virginia at that time — known as “the Artist from Detroit.” Among the art Earl created in college were several pen-and-ink drawings of campus buildings that were subsequently used in the student annuals.

After graduating from college, Earl was employed as a 6th grade teacher in China Grove, North Carolina. Virginia taught in Black Mountain, North Carolina. In May 1941, Earl and Virginia were married in neighboring Montreat, North Carolina. Later that year, Virginia began teaching in Asheville, where Earl began working for Sears.

Not long after the United States entered the war at the end of 1941, Earl enlisted in the Army Air Force and was sent to Kansas, Washington, and Dalhart, Texas to learn maintenance and repair on B-17 aircraft. Virginia joined him in Dalhart, then Earl was transfered to work at the flight training base in Gulfport, Mississippi to maintain and repair B-29 aircraft. Virginia joined him in Mississippi as the civilian secretary to the base commander of flying and training.

Following World War II, Earl and Virginia lived briefly in Greenville, South Carolina where their first son, Keith, was born. They then followed Virginia’s father, Emless Hall, who had a few years earlier moved to Clute, Texas as a construction contractor for the new Dow Chemical Texas Division chemical plant. In 1946, Earl and Virginia opened Irby’s Home Furnishings in downtown Clute. Earl remained an office employee of Dow Chemical until 1950, additionally working parttime at their new furniture business. Earl and Virginia joined the First Freeport Presbyterian Church in the late 1940’s and continued there as lifelong members, occasional Sunday School teachers, deacon, and elder.

Earl became full time at the furniture store in early 1950 several months before the birth of their second son, Glynn. They moved their business to the “new” State Highway 288 in 1959, now known as B-288. They suffered a great loss from rising Gulf water during Hurricane Carla in 1961. Yet they were able to increase the size of their furniture building in 1967 and remodeled again in 1978 and 1992. They provided furniture for thousands of customers and interior design services for hundreds of residential and commercial projects during their 64 years of service. Virginia died in 2004, Irby’s Home Furnishings closed in 2012. Earl remained in the Brazosport area enjoying retirement, visiting his grandchildren, traveling to the Carolinas, Big Bend, and other locations, bird watching, and just enjoying life along the coast of Texas.

Earl’s last words to his son, Glynn, were spoken a couple of days before his death and before he lapsed into mostly a hard sleep, yet after the hospice nurse left for the night. Earl looked at his son sitting beside his bed, then shifted his head a bit to look beyond his bedroom ceiling, raised his left hand slightly, and eagerly repeated four times, “look straight up.”

Irby is preceded in death by his father and mother, Langley Monroe and Belle Aikin Irby; his older brother, Harold Irby; his older sister, Motel Irby Griffith; and his eldest son, Keith Odell Irby.

He is leaving his youngest son, Glynn Irby, of Clute; and four grandchildren, Shelton Irby, of Stillwater, Oklahoma, Marlise Irby, of Anchorage, Alaska, Morgan Irby, of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and Stefon Irby, of Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Memorial services will be held on October 29th, 2016, Saturday, at 11:00 a.m. in the sanctuary of the First Freeport Presbyterian Church in Freeport, Texas. A reception will be held after the service in the Educational Wing of the church. In lieu of flowers, please donate to the First Freeport Presbyterian Church (1402 West Broad St, Freeport, Texas 77541), the Rabun Gap-Nachoochee School (rabungap.org/Page/Giving/Ways-to-Give/Give-Online), or the charity of your choice.