William George Wade

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William George Wade, 88, passed away on May 12. Visitation will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, May 18. Services will be at Heartland Funeral Home at 2 p.m. Friday, May 19, with interment to follow at Zephyr Cemetery. 

William was born March 6, 1935, in Mountain Home, Texas. After graduating from Blanket High School in 1956, William married Mildred Frances Cunningham on July 12, 1957, at Blanket First Baptist Church and they began a life together that blessed them with four children. 

After graduation, William was drafted into the U.S. Army and attended basic training in Ft. Ord, Calif. He then returned home to marry Mildred and they quickly moved to California, where he was stationed in Los Angeles County and served in the U.S. Army at a NIKE Missile Base from 1957 to 1960. After his time in the service, he returned to Brownwood, Texas, and went to work for Potter’s Industry manufacturing glass beads used in highway striping. In 1969, he was transferred to the Potter’s plant in Apex, N.C., where he was the plant production supervisor. In 1982, he and a friend started a new glass bead plant called North Eastern Safety Products in Carbondale, Penn. In 2006, the business was relocated to Palestine, Texas, as Weissker Manufacturing, where he worked as the vice president of plant manufacturing. In 2015, he and his wife retired and moved to Zephyr, Texas, where they later attended Bethel Baptist Church. 

William enjoyed taking his wife and family to the casinos. He raised cattle for a number of years and even made some of them his pets. William enjoyed spending his time working in his massive garden to provide produce for all his family and friends. Oftentimes, he would be gone to the garden for so long that Mildred would begin to worry. When she asked him what he was doing there for so long he would respond, “watering the garden and saying my prayers.” He also liked to spend time sitting on his front porch feeding and just watching the deer, turkey and other wildlife. All the animals were his friends and he was their protector. William was a very hardworking family man who was loved by many and will be missed by all who knew him.

William is survived by his wife, Mildred Wade, of Zephyr; sons Billy Joseph Wade and wife Cynthia, of May, Danny Dale Wade, of Zephyr, Tony Randall Wade and wife, Lisa, of Palestine; daughter, Sherry Melanie Jackson and husband, Robert, of May; brothers John Wade, of Pagosa Springs, Colo., Edmund and wife Sandra Wade, of Pagosa Springs, Colo., Joseph and wife Janice Wade, of Zephyr; 10 grandchildren; 10 great-grandchildren; and many nieces, nephews, cousins and friends.

William was preceded in death by his father, George Wesley Wade; mother Ella Ida (Leeder) Wade; and sister Annie Belle Wade.

Online condolences can be shared with the family at www.heartlandfuneralhome.net.