Maurice Chastain

Maurice M. Chastain, 86, of Waco, passed away at noon, September 10, 2002 at his residence in Waco. Services will be at 2 p.m. Friday, September 13, at First United Methodist Church at 4901 Cobbs Drive, Waco, with the Rev. Stephen Ramsdell, pastor, officiating. Interment and graveside services will be at Fairview Cemetery in Grosvenor, Texas, near Brownwood, Texas, on Saturday, September 14, 2002 at 11:00 AM under the direction of OakCrest Funeral Home of Waco. The family will receive friends at the OakCrest Funeral Home on 4520 Bosque Blvd. from 6:00 to 8:00 PM on Thursday evening, September 12. On Friday evening from 7:00 to 9:00 PM the family will receive friends at the Davis-Morris Funeral Home, 800 Center Ave. Brownwood, Texas. Brownwood friends and relatives will meet at Davis-Morris Funeral Home at 10:00 AM to follow in procession to the cemetery.
Mr. Chastain was born December 23, 1915 in Grosvenor, Texas, to Homer and Dora Baugh Chastain. He graduated from Howard Payne University in Brownwood and did graduate work at Texas Tech and Baylor University. He was Athletic Director and Football Coach at Los Fresnos in the Rio Grande Valley before World War II. He volunteered for the Service and received a Lieutenant?s Commission into the Army Air Corps on graduation day at OCS in Miami Beach, Florida. He was immediately shipped to North Africa at the beginning of the Invasion of North Africa. He then spent three years in North Africa, Sicily, Italy and Southern France, most of the time in the combat zone. At the end of the war he returned home to Waco and went to work for the Veterans Administration in the rehabilitation of veterans.
After five years, he was recalled by the Air Force for two years service in the Korean Conflict. He was the Post Exchange Officer at James Connally Air Force Base. He retired from the Air Force as a Lieutenant Colonel. On return, he was hired by the Social Security Administration. His final assignment was Area Director overseeing Social Security Offices in the western half of Texas, New Mexico and the Indian Reservations in New Mexico and Arizona.
During his service with the Social Security Administration, he was awarded the highest commendation for his administrative skills and personnel management. Among his memorabilia was a pen used by President Lyndon Johnson to sign a bill and handed to him. For two years he coordinated President Johnson?s War on Poverty in the Dallas Region.
After his retirement from Social Security, he and his wife moved from Dallas to Brownwood where they owned a small ranch. For fifteen years, he loved working cattle, plowing the soil, baling hay, hunting and playing golf. He especially enjoyed hunting with his son, Byron, and his sons-in-law, Charles James and Bob Burgess.
Mr. Chastain was a member of the First United Methodist Church of Waco and the Wesleyan Workers Class. Pallbearers will be from the Wesleyan Workers Class: Dick Wooten, John Wooten, Norman Nossaman, Bill Aman, Warren Rudolph, Ralph Post and the rest of the men in the class will be honorary pallbearers.
He was preceded in death by his parents, four brothers and three sisters.
Mr. Chastain is survived by his wife of sixty-two years, Deanie, nee, Phail-Dean Copeland Chastain of Waco; his son, Byron Chastain of Austin; daughters, Maurie James and husband, Charles of Burleson; Jan Burgess and husband, Bob of Round Rock; grandchildren: Cameron and Stuart Freeman, Robert Burgess, David James and Charlene Masch; great-grandchildren: Sydney and Harrison James, Reilly and Taylor Masch.
Memorials may be made to First United Methodist Church of Waco at 4901 Cobbs Drive Waco, TX 76710 or First United Methodist Church of Brownwood at 2500 11th St. Brownwood, TX 76801.