Coy Houston

Coy Reece Houston, 84 of Kenton, died 6:15 a.m. May 29, 2012, at Baptist Memorial Hospital in Union City. Services will be 2 p.m. Thursday at Kenton Cumberland Presbyterian Church, with Lonnie Grady, the Rev. Charles McCall, and Luke Melsa officiating. Burial will follow in Rutherford Cemetery with military honors. Pallbearers will be Randy Pitts, Bob Hollomon, Joe Sharp, Mike Perryman, Matthew Pitts and Gary Boyett. Honorary pallbearers will be Daniel Sharp, Geoffrey Payne, Quinton Boyett, Paul Williams, Ross Smith and Joe Taylor. The family will receive friends from noon until the hour of services at the church. They request that memorials be made to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis and suggest that random acts of kindness done in his name would be a comforting and valued reminder of his life. He was born July 19, 1927, in Rutherford, son of the late Coy Martin and Irma Jewel (Harris) Houston. He married the former Mary Helen Wiley, February 22, 1947. She survives. He was a World War II U.S. Navy veteran and was also a U.S. Army veteran of the 82nd Airborne Division. He was the retired owner of Houston Chemical Co. and was a former Kenton alderman, having served in the 1960s. A Charter member of the Kenton JayCees, he was that organization’s first president. He was also a Gideon, a Mason, and a Shriner. As a member of Kenton Cumberland Presbyterian Church, he served as a deacon. Reece Houston will also be remembered by every child he ever met as a wonderful story teller. He is survived by his wife; two daughters and his son-in-law, Janet Melsa of Franklin and Beverly and Lonnie Grady of Union City; his son and daughter-in-law, Gary and Marsha Houston of Union City; six grandchildren, Melissa Brown and Helen Shaikh, both of Franklin, Mary Margaret Read of Cottontown, Dr. Lolly Eldrige of Jackson, Jim Coy Houston of Medina and Luke Melsa of Austin, Texas; 16 great-grandchildren; his brother, Larry Houston of Memphis; and several nieces and nephews, great-nieces and great-nephews, sisters-in-law, brothers-in-law and cousins. He was also preceded in death by his grandson, Hunter Houston Grady; two brothers, Glennon Houston and Billy Houston; and his infant sister, Truma Dean Houston. Karnes & Son Funeral Home is honored to serve the family of Coy Reece Houston.