DALLAS, Texas — Don Vernor Henry died peacefully of natural causes with his family at his side, Saturday, July 1. He was 91. Born in the middle of the Great Depression in 1932 in Sherman, Texas, Don lived a life of faith and family, negotiating life’s turns through such eras as the Korean, Cold and Vietnam wars, the tech boom, retirement and every date in between. Through it all, next to him for almost 70 years was his wife Patricia Jean Ezell Henry. The two raised three boys — Scott, Vic and Burt — into successful family men. In his last days, rarely a day went by without Don saying how proud he was of his three boys and their families. Before Don and Pat met, he was a standout distance runner at Bowie High School, finishing second at the state meet in the mile run as a senior in 1949. He ran track and cross country at Howard Payne College and did the same when he transferred to North Texas State. It was there his lifelong love affair with Pat began. They penned byline stories at the Campus Chat as journalism students before the two graduated in 1953. Don and Pat married in Odessa on Feb. 6, 1954 (coincidentally his birthday), during a weekend leave from his Army service at Fort Bliss in El Paso. They moved to Fort Bragg in North Carolina and eventually to Germany, where Sgt. Don Henry helped man the “Honest John” radar system. Don and Pat made a couple of newlywed weekend jaunts through Europe during their stay in Germany. Parenthood started soon after Don’s honorable discharge from the Army. He took a job as a police reporter — for $65 a week — at the Big Spring Herald and became a doting father after Scott was born in 1956 and Vic in 1958. Don’s journalism passion was in sports and he moved the family to San Angelo in 1960, beginning a sportswriting career that would feature everything from the Friday night lights of high school football to major college sports to interviewing icons like Joe Louis, Bear Bryant and Don Haskins. Along the way, the family grew to five with the birth of Burt in 1961. Don took a job at the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal in 1967, eventually working up to sports editor. He was the beat writer for Texas Tech athletics, mainly covering Red Raiders football and basketball. The gig took him to Final Fours and Cotton Bowls, state playoff games and state track meets, Aspermont and the Astrodome. Upon Burt’s high school graduation, he and Pat moved to El Paso in 1979, where he was the assistant sports editor and covered UTEP Miners football until retiring in 1998. He was rewarded frequently for his contributions in sports journalism — Texas Sportswriter of the Year by the Texas High School Coaches Association and a Headliner Award to name a few. He also served as a president of the Texas Sportswriters Association, was a member of the College Football and Basketball Writers (chairman once) Associations, and voted on all-America teams and the Heisman Trophy. Despite a career of late nights in the sports departments, Don and Pat rarely missed a Sunday morning church service. He was a deacon in every church they joined during his family’s journey through West Texas. With his family so far from El Paso — Scott and Vic in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex and Burt in San Antonio — the two retired first in Ballinger in Central Texas. He continued his passion for newspaper journalism, filing sports stories for the Ballinger Ledger and football preview stories for the San Angelo Standard-Times. Retirement brought Don and Pat even closer. In addition to frequent trips to the Metroplex and San Antonio to see their sons’ growing families, the two traveled to such places as San Francisco and Banff National Park in Canada. Don’s love of American history and his fascination with exploration of the West led them to Montana and Oregon to trace Lewis and Clark’s famous trek. In 2008, Don and Pat moved to Wylie to be even closer to family and were faithful members of Northlake Baptist Church in Garland. Don spent his final years in the area. Don is preceded in death by his parents John Vernor Henry and Annie Cox Henry. He is survived by Patricia Jean Ezell Henry, his wife of 69 years; son Scott Vernor Henry and his wife Kay of Garland; son Vic Houston Henry and his wife Candy McComb of Sachse; son Burt Wyatt Henry and his wife Janet of Marble Falls; seven grandchildren and four great grandchildren. Services are pending. In lieu of flowers, the family asks you to contribute to the University of North Texas Mayborn School of Journalism at https://journalism.unt.edu/alumni-giving/support-mayborn.