Harold Thomas Connor

On November 9, 2015, Harold Thomas Connor, 95, a native of Daingerfield, Texas, passed away peacefully in his sleep. A memorial service will be held at Nail-Haggard Funeral Home with Brother Bryan Peck officiating on November 15 at 2:00 pm.Mr. Harold Thomas Connor was born February 18, 1920, to Thomas Clay Connor and Marguerite Ledbetter Connor. He was the fifth generation of the Connor family to live in Daingerfield; his family having first arrived in 1849. Mr. Connor graduated from Daingerfield High school in 1937. After high school, he moved to Boonville, Missouri, where he attended Kemper Military School Junior College. He graduated in 1941 from Parks Air College in East St. Louis (now part of St. Louis University) with a degree in maintenance engineering. After graduation he went to work for North American Aviation in Dallas, Texas, as a final inspector in flight tests before airplanes made their first flight.Mr. Connor joined the United States Navy after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and became a Naval Flight Instructor. He was assigned to Atlantic and Pacific Carrier Fleet Duty. A lieutenant in the United States Navy, Mr. Connor trained hundreds of pilots for the war overseas. It was during World War II that he met his beloved wife of 62 years, Cecilia Clariece Cross Connor, better known as "Eece" to the grandchildren. Harold and Clariece were married in Dallas, Texas, at White Rock Methodist Church, and immediately departed for Houston and then to Corpus Christi, Texas, where he awaited orders. He received subsequent orders that sent him to Jacksonville, Florida, San Diego and San Francisco, California. It was in San Francisco where Mr. Connor was actively shipping out to join the war against Japan when a peace agreement was reached.After the war, he and Clariece returned to Daingerfield to make their home. Mr. Connor accepted a job with General Dynamics in Lone Star, Texas, where he spent 22 years working to test the rocket engines that eventually propelled America into the age of space exploration. After General Dynamics moved to Fort Worth, Texas, in 1968 Mr. Connor made a choice to stay in Daingerfield and continue his part-time interests in farming and ranching. As a land-man and outdoorsman, he never truly retired, but he ceased his larger cattle business in 1989. During the 1990s and early years of the 21st Century, he served as a director on the Board of Directors of The First National Bank of Hughes Springs. He also served on the Daingerfield School Board for many years.Mr. Connor was a man of many interests and hobbies. In addition to his extensive farming and ranching interests, education and knowledge were always paramount in his mind. He became certified as a graphoanalysist (handwriting analyst) giving many lectures in the East Texas community. Later he returned to college to study art and pottery making. He loved portrait painting and ceramic pottery. He discovered clays of many hues on his land in Morris County and slowly began developing his own technique for making black pottery. Visiting with local historians and studying the artifacts from the area, he made geometric designs based on pottery made by the Caddo Indians whose homelands were in East and Northeast Texas. Over the last 25 years, Mr. Connor created more than 4,000 pots. Although small, his pottery studio was always active during his later years. He always said that he never knew what he was going to see when he opened the door to his kiln. Mr. Connor was preceded in death by his parents and his wife of 62 years, Clariece; a sister, Virginia Norris, and his cousin, George Alma Terrell. He is survived by his two daughters, Kay Connor Stuckey of Houston, and Ceci Connor of Daingerfield. In addition, Mr. Connor is survived by four grandchildren, Dr. Harold Troy Stuckey and wife Laura of Dallas, Judge Thomas Nathaniel Stuckey and wife Dr. Danell Stuckey of San Antonio, Leigh Ann Chekanovskiy of Dallas, and William Connor Tucker and wife Marie of Longview. He is also survived by four great grandchildren, Clay Connor Stuckey, Nathan Harrison Stuckey, Alexander Duchovny Chekanovskiy, and William Samuel Chekanovskiy and one niece, Shirley Shull Tart, of Dallas.In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Harold T. Connor Memorial Scholarship, Northeast Texas Community College, PO Box 1307, Mt.Pleasant, Texas 75456.