December 4, 1922 - August 29, 2016
Jene Willet Moore left this life for the next one on August 29th, after a stay of 93 years.
He was the youngest triplet, by minutes, with brothers Jack and Joe, born to Lawrence Moore and Lula Edith Small Moore on December 4, 1922, in Clio, Brown County, Texas. Jene and his seven siblings spent their earliest years on the family’s cotton farm in Clio, and in Brownwood. In 1936 the senior Mr. Moore brought his family to the Reynolds community of Schleicher County where he built a cotton gin, which he operated with others he had constructed at Wall, Eola, and Veribest.
In 1941 Jack and Jene entered college at Texas A&M. After Pearl Harbor was bombed that year and the US entered World War II, the entire campus of Texas A&M was evacuated and 7,000 students left for induction into the armed forces. Jack and Jene finished basic training in 1943 and returned to A&M for a few months until there was an opening at Officer Candidate School. Commissioned as 2nd lieutenants in the spring of 1945, they served in the Mechanized Cavalry, then later in the horse cavalry, at Fort Riley, Kansas. In the summer of 1945 they were shipped out to “clean up” in the Philippines after the war had ended, and in 1946 attended the famous Aggie Muster Ceremony on the island of Corregidor, the heavily fortified defense at the entrance of the Bay of Manila which had sustained 72 days of bombing. In August of that year Jack and Jene returned to A&M where Jene graduated with a degree in Animal Husbandry.
Jene returned to farming family land in Schleicher County, interspersed with a stint of working for the Federal Land Bank in Fort Stockton.
On November 11, 1958 Jene and Anita Runge, daughter of another Schleicher County family, were married at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Eldorado and in 1963 the couple moved to Anita’s family’s ranch where Jene farmed alongside the Runge family’s livestock business.
Jene obtained a Master’s degree in Agricultural Education from Texas A&M and in 1967 the couple went to the Dominican Republic where Jene was employed by the Agency for International Development under a contract with Texas A&M to teach local agriculturalists how to grow winter fruits and vegetables for the U. S. market.
In 1969 Jene and Anita moved to Pueblo, Colorado, where Jene briefly worked for the Southern Colorado Economic Development Board and then managed an apartment complex. He had considerable skills in woodworking which he put to good use when the couple remodeled a vintage stone vacation house they bought in La Veta, in the mountains of Southern Colorado.
In 2000 Jene and Anita retired home to Texas. They bought a home in Kerrville, where Jene continued with his furniture building and stained glass work.
They were members of St. Benedict Episcopal Church in La Veta and St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Kerrville.
Jene is preceded in death by his brothers Joe, Henry and Charles, sisters Celeste Moore Carson and Vida Moore Kreklow , brothers-in-law Dorsey Hardeman, Joe Kreklow and Dr. Arch Carson, sisters- in-law May RungeKissko and Dorothy Moore. He is survived by his wife of 58 years, Anita Runge Moore, his brother Jack Moore and wife Pat, sister Geneva Moore Hardeman, brothers-in-law Dick Runge and wife Caroline and Jim Runge and wife Claryce, and 19 nieces and nephews.
A memorial service for Jene will be held on Saturday, September 10 at 11:00 a.m. at St. James Episcopal Church in Fort McKavett, Texas
Memorial donations may be made to St. James Episcopal Church. St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Kerrville, Texas or to a favorite charity.
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