LYNN HOPSON

The following bio was taken from page 245 of the book entitled "Rusk County History" compiled and edited and used with permission of the Rusk County Historical Commission.

Transcribed by Shirley Koym

Submitted by Gloria Briley Mayfield, Cemeteries of Texas

Lynn and I were married in Runnels County, Texas on April 4, 1949. We have two sons. The oldest, Robert David, was born in Atascosa County on May 31, 1950. The youngest, Lonnie Glynn, was born in Matagorda County on January 12, 1953. David is now living in Borger, Texas, and Lonnie is living with me here in Minden.

Lynn (1925-1981) and I were new comers to Rusk County. We have no roots here in Minden or Rusk County, but we were welcomed to the community and it made us feel as though we had known everyone all of our lives.

When all the Hopson families began to move into the Minden area in the later part of the 1960’s and the early part of the 1970’s, one old timer made this statement, "The Hopsons and the bitter weeds are taking Minden". This was said by Mr. Douglas Dawson, who ran the Dawson Grocery Store at that time. There were five Hopson families living here in Minden at one time. First, there were Cecil, Dolores, and Owen; then Henry S., Octa, and Donna; Johnnie and Eva; Duddley and Verna; then, of course, ourselves. Time has separated first one and then another until now. Cecil, Owen, Henry S., Octa, Lonnie, and I are the only Hopsons that live in Minden. Verna Hopson lives in Henderson now.

One reason most of us moved to this area was to get out of the "rat race" in Houston. We thought that East Texas was a good place to live because there was such a tranquil atmosphere everywhere one went. Little did we know that within the next ten or fifteen years this was to be one of the fastest growing areas.

My husband was a World War II veteran. He was in the 29^th Infantry Division. He fought in three major campaigns – Normandy, Northern France, and Rhineland. He landed on Normandy Beach and marched across France and Germany to the Rhineland, where he was wounded in 1945. He spent several months in a hospital in England and was finally able to return to the United States. Some of his medals are the Bronze Star, the Expert Infantryman Badge, and others. His war wound was ever present even to the day he died in January 1981.

Lynn could trace his ancestry back to Wales, where two brothers left Wales to come to the new country, only to become separated after they reached the United States. I do not know the year they arrived in the new country. All I know about my ancestors is that most of them came from England, settled in Tennessee first, then moved on to Texas.

Submitted by Virgie Hopson