Floyd W Spain

Floyd Windell Spain was born September 6, 1937, in the small rural West Texas town of Rotan.
During his teen years he lived in nearby Sweetwater, when at the age of 17 he joined the Navy for a 4-year hitch.

Later, while living in Abilene, Texas he was employed in the civil service at Dyess Air Force Base. He retired after stints as a painter and locksmith in 1995.

In 1973, he met and married Janice – and just last month they celebrated their 50th anniversary.
Floyd was a lifetime member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, and a member of the Suez Shriners. He was also a Master in the Scottish Rites Free Masonry.

His son Kenneth Lewis, and son Wendy Spain and wife Judy, live in Texas.
His daughter Toni Fuller and husband Steve lives here.

He is joined in heaven with his other two sons, Tim Webb and Todd Spain.
Floyd has 13 grandchildren and 25 great-grandchildren.

Memories of Floyd

Floyd came into my life when I was 16. He and Mom were married about 2 years before Steve and me.
He was my dad from that day forward, I was his daughter, and Steve was his son.

To our son Ricky and daughter- in- law Laine; our grandsons Jaxon, Dexter, Fletcher; and our son Timmy – he was Papa Floyd to all of them l!!!! He was also Papaw Floyd to our Indiana family: my brother Tim’s widow, Donna; niece, Talena; and nephews, Ty, and Austin.

As you can see from the table some of the things that gave him joy included playing music with his friends, especially the bass guitar. He spent many a season deer hunting in Texas and travelled many miles up and down the road gambling in Oklahoma. He was very active in the masonic lodge and a big supporter of the Shriner’s Children’s Hospital. He loved watching western movies and must have seen Lonesome Dove a hundred times.

We all loved him dearly through the years. He made us laugh with his crazy antics and costumes. Dressing up as Willie Nelson was a favorite and he was mistaken for him on more than one occasion. We loved his perfectly 2” thick grilled porterhouse steaks and mouthwatering catfish frys. We loved his best-ever-back rubs. And we loved that he loved his pickup truck and the pride he took in taking all the kids out in the country learning to drive.

We got to hear his soft-spoken words of love and advice.

We got to see him as just a good ol’ Texas cowboy.

What we didn’t see was Floyd as a young boy – called Windell by his family. He changed it to Floyd when he joined the Navy. I spent some time these past couple of months hearing about some of his childhood memories…….

Windell lived with his family in an old 1 room schoolhouse, one huge room for his folks and brother and sister, Billy, and Sissy. It was crowded but at least it had a playground swing and seesaw! They had a farm, so his chores were killing and cleaning chickens and picking cotton in the fields. He was good at math and spelling and fell in love with his first-grade teacher.

He loved playing cowboys and Indians with his friends and his favorite Christmas present was a cowboy hat and gun set.

He was raised in the church and his parents taught him to value the teachings of the Bible. Brother Billy was hit by a car and killed on his bicycle when they were in the dark coming home from a drive-in movie. It was a hardship his family had to overcome.

Floyd spent his summers, after chores of course, roaming the canyons for miles, jumping into swimming holes with the snakes and turtles. His father loved to dance and took the kids to dances, must’ve rubbed off because Floyd was a great dancer in his younger days when he and Mom were out honkytonkin’!
One last story he told, “There was a fiddling contest and my Grandpa played the fiddle, I wanted to go but wasn’t old enough. My brother Billy went and some of my cousins got to go too, so I just went and hid under the bed. Grandma hollered and hollered, and I stayed good and hid. Finally, one of my aunts was standing next to the bed - I reached out and grabbed her leg! She peed all over herself, and I got the switch.”

I’ll finish up with 2 of his endearing expressions:

When leaving the house, he would always say, “Drive safe and pay attention.” I know that literally he meant “pay attention to the road”, but I’d also like to think he meant pay attention to life, to your many blessings, and especially to those that you love.

Many, many times through the years he would ask mom, myself, and others in his life, this question, so I’ll ask y’all the same,

“Have I told you lately how much I love you?”