PAUL P. MCALPIN  

The following bio was taken from page 291 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 

Paul Potter McAlpin was born November 20, 1920 in Hines County, Mississippi, the son of Elijah Richardson McAlpin and Mary Anne Brewer McAlpin.  Elijah was the son of Harrison McAlpin and Narcissis Axton McAlpin.  Mary Anne was the daughter of John R. Brewer, who came directly from Ireland at age thirteen.  Paul’s father, a prosperous farmer, died of a ruptured appendix in 1927 at the age of forty-five, leaving his wife and eight children.  They were:  Clyda, Lena, Silvester, Able, Bobby Charles, Viola, Ollie, Paul Potter, and Silas Leroy.  Mary Anne struggled to keep the family together; however, with the coming of the Great Depression, she found it necessary to place the two younger daughters, Viola and Ollie, in the Masonic Home.  Elijah McAlpin had been a Master Mason.  As the depression deepened, Mrs. Mary Ann McAlpin remarried in 1933, coming with her husband, Mr. Taylor Whitehead, to Rusk County, Texas, where he owned a farm near Good Springs Community.  She died October 8, 1962, at the age of eighty-one.

Paul Potter McAlpin married Margaret Lelwyn Deason, October 22, 1944.  He served in the Air Force and the Field Artillery, 1942-1946, receiving an honorable discharge.  He was stationed in Europe a year.  On his return to civilian life, he attended college two and one-half years.

In 1952 Paul and Margaret moved to Houston where they made their home in Spring Branch for many years.  Paul worked as an insurance agent and as a real estate broker and at one time owned his own real estate company.  He is a Thirty-Second Degree Scottish Rite Mason affiliated with Pine Hill Lodge Number 95, where he was elected to serve as Worshipful Master, 1981-1982.  He is Past Worthy Patron of the Eastern Star Number 675.

Margaret has a B. A. degree and taught school.  She also has a real estate license and helped Paul in the office.  She is also a member of the Eastern Star.  In 1974, the couple moved “home” to the Brachfield Community.

Submitted by Margaret and Paul McAlpin