Lewis Fry Celebrates 89th Birthday

Dateline Colleyville: August 15, 2001 6:13 PM

Lewis Fry Celebrates 89th Birthday

Lewis Fry, longtime Colleyville resident, celebrated his 89th birthday on Sunday, August 12. Lewis lived on West Glade Road for many years, directly across from the Mill Creek subdivision, prior to moving to North Richland Hills. He owned an excavation business and was the source of many a story around Colleyville, some of which can be found in the book Colleyville, 1855-1956.
Lewis was born in Rhome, Texas in 1912. When he was five or six his family moved to Arkansas via wagon, with his father and three sons walking most of the

way. Lewis and his brothers moved back to Colleyville as young men, and Lewis eventually met and married Nadine Sneed of Fort Worth. As an ex-student of the Pleasant Run School, he had perfect attendance at 25 reunions until an accident this year kept him away.

Joy Trent shared her memories of Lewis with LNO after attending his recent birthday party with friends and family in Colleyville. Seems that as a young man Lewis wanted to become a professional wrestler so he went to the Sportatorium in Dallas. Once there he was told what holds he could use and that he could not hurt anyone - in other words it was to be fake. Made Lewis so mad he returned home and never went back.

Lewis was a regular coffee drinker at the old Burrus grocery in Colleyville. The store was sold and remodeled several years ago and now is home to Ruby's Seafood, J&H Interiors, and other local businesses. Burrus had a deli area, and a regular group of customers would gather throughout the day to share memories and tell tales of Colleyville's past. A former employee of the grocery wrote a poem dedicated to this group that was originally published in the Grapevine Pictorial Press on February 5, 1986. Joy's father, Ollie McCain, was one of the "coffee drinkers" and was presented a framed copy of the poem, which she shared with us. Click here to read the poem.

Times have changed and so have some of the faces, but the coffee drinkers have moved down the street to the Whataburger, scene of Lewis' recent birthday party. We just don't see this group convening in Starbuck's for latte's any time soon. Happy birthday, Lewis, and many more, from LNO.