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Ed Gooding
July 10, 1924 – July 3, 2003
If ever a man defined the
Greatest Generation, it was Ed Gooding. At 9:40 Thursday night, July
3, 2003, Ed passed from this world and joined his beloved Lena, who
proceeded him in death in 1995.
During his lifetime, Ed
had four careers, all of which he was equally proud: cowboy, soldier
in World War II, Highway Patrolman, and Texas Ranger.
Born in the South Texas
town of Ingleside, San Patricio County, Ed grew up on ranches in that
area and in Kimble County. He would have been happy to have always been
cowboy because it was a life he truly loved. Like millions of other
Americans, however, everything changed for Ed when the Japanese attacked
Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
 In
eleven months of combat from behind his 30-caliber light machine gun,
Ed fought through the deathtraps that were the hedgerows in Normandy.
Another time he was later literally blown off a hill by artillery fire.
He followed Patton on his race across France, and he was one of the
soldiers who made the forty-eight-hour march through the freezing weather
and snow that relieved the 101st Airborne at Bastogne, Belgium.
With the end of the war,
Ed returned to his first love, a ranch in South Texas. He said many
times that being a cowboy saved his sanity. The solitude from the back
of a horse gave him time to think and clear his mind of the nightmares
of the horrors of war.
In 1949, the opportunity
to join the Texas Department of Public Safety presented itself. Ed had
always had the greatest admiration for the law—and the money was
a lot better than he was getting as a cowboy. He applied for and was
accepted into the DPS. On March 1, 1949, he became a Texas Highway Patrolman
stationed in Houston.
It was in Houston that Ed
met and married Lena. At that time, the Highway Patrol did not allow
married Troopers to remain in the city, and so Ed was transferred to
nearby Baytown. For the next eight years, he served with great pride
as a Highway Patrolman.
When a small boy, Ed had
seen his first Texas Ranger. From the minute he joined the Highway Patrol,
he knew his ultimate goal was to one day be a Ranger himself. In 1957,
Ranger Captain Hardy Purvis retired as commander of Houston’s
Company A. The new commander, the legendary Johnny Klevenhagen, knew
Ed and asked him to join his company.
 Ed
couldn’t accept his Ranger position fast enough. For the next
seven years, he was stationed in Houston. During that time, he saw enough
action to have lasted most Rangers a full career.
But by 1982, Ed had seen
enough. On August 31, he took his badge off for the last time. During
his twenty-five years as a Ranger, he had served the citizens of Texas
in Houston, Kerrville, Amarillo, and Belton—all with the great
honor and tradition that the Lone Star state expects of her Rangers.
Those who knew Ed closely
know of the other great passion in his life, his religion. He volunteered
with total unselfishness to his church. Some of his last words as he
lay dying in a Fort Worth hospital were to his preacher. He said that
he was in a win-win situation: “If I get out of here, I win; if
I don’t, I still win.”
Yes, Ed was one of the Greatest
Generation, an inspiring Texas Ranger, and a great Christian. His friends
will miss him greatly.
- Robert Nieman
For more about Ed Gooding, click
this link.
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