James Luther Staton III

James Luther Staton III, known as “Lutie” to family and old friends, died of heart failure in the late evening of Monday, January 15, 2024 after a lifetime of working with his hands and intellect to fix real-world problems and help others

In childhood, he confidently took things apart whether he knew how to put them back together or not, but in the end, he always could put them back together. He grew up teaching himself how to build and repair almost anything and did so during his 80 years as a son, husband, son-in-law, uncle, father, and grandfather. He was known and appreciated as much for his low-key presence amid ongoing chaos as for his immense talent with all things mechanical and his joy in seeing children play, learn, and grow.

Luther was born at Waco’s Providence Hospital on October 25, 1943 to James Luther Staton, Jr., and Lena Lue Dean Staton. As a boy and young man, Luther was an active member of St. Paul’s Church, as a Young Churchman, acolyte, and choir member. When the family moved to their Cobbs Drive home, the “lake streets” development was in the future, and young Lutie often took to the hilly nearby streets in his go-kart, back before that was such a death-defying proposition.

Luther attended Jack and Jill Kindergarten, Dean Highland Elementary, North Junior High, and Waco High School, where he played saxophone in the marching band. He graduated in 1961 and never missed a class reunion.

After graduation, he headed to college, attending Texas A&M, the University of North Texas, and Tarleton State. As always, his instinct to build various things and repair whatever was broken was uppermost, and Tarleton offered woodworking, metal shop, and mechanics—exactly the kinds of things he enjoyed. Luther loved cars, all cars, and after a couple of years as a night supervisor at a munitions factory in Mexia during the Vietnam War, Luther earned further mechanical certification at TSTC and was a motor mechanic at Frank Weaver Pontiac and afterward at Key Tire (later Dunn’s), before retiring to help care for his parents and manage family business. He and Beth tutored English as a second language at Austin Avenue Methodist Church for several years and helped out with food pantry deliveries at Lake Shore Baptist. His god¬mother enrolled Luther in the Sons of the American Revolution and the Sons of the Republic of Texas, and he was admitted into DeMolay as a teenager. Luther was a Master Mason and a 32º Mason of the Scottish Rite. He was a member of the Karem Shrine Temple and rode in the Karem Motor Patrol with his first father-in-law W. A. Terry.

In 1964, Luther went on an Alaskan cruise that he remembered mainly for the fact that Hollywood star and Oscar winner Claire Trevor (Key Largo) was also on board. In 1965, he joined in the Waco tradition of making the “grand tour” of Europe, beginning with an outbound voyage on the Queen Mary, and he especially valued his time in Barcelona and Pompeii. He came home with piles of slides and got a kick out of being the only young man on the tour, in the company of a dozen-plus young women and their luggage. On October 6, 1966, Luther and Betty Ann Terry married, and their two sons, Terry Sebastian and Wesley Dean, were born in 1967 and 1972, respectively. Several years after he and Betty divorced, Luther and Elizabeth Moore Willingham were married at Baylor’s Armstrong-Browning Library on Epiphany, January 6, 1996.

Luther’s love for music and movies lasted a lifetime. He was knowledgeable about a variety of music genres and all things Old Hollywood interested Luther. He had an admirable command of movie trivia and loved watching classic movie channels, keeping well-thumbed references on film at hand. He had an excellent memory and a bent for history, so he was the go-to person for details related to film. Each year, he anticipated the release of TCM Remembers, a video tribute to actors, directors, writers, and others involved in film who had died during the year.

As Luther’s grandchildren can attest, he was acutely aware of how much they adored playing with cap guns, fishing, and taking rides on go-carts or his custom-built wagon, circling the house and a long horseshoe driveway.

Lena, Thomas, Ben, Rachel, William, Jack, James, George, Ren, Susanna, and Matthew all appreciated Luther’s readiness to drop everything to run out to the store for new cap pistols, more caps, or snacks. Callum, the youngest grandchild, was born just weeks before Luther passed away, but we will carry on Luther’s legacy with Callum, too, by way of workshop, cap-gun, and go-kart time—with snacks of Baby Bells and limeade.                                       

Never one to be left behind by technology, Luther adopted new digital tools to forward his interests. He used YouTube’s tutorial videos for trouble shooting and repairs, faithfully followed glob¬al events on U.S. and Israeli news, used his phone to keep up with the stock market, the weather, and lake levels in Waco and Mexia, and regularly watched Univision programming.

Luther was known in the neighborhood for the beautiful oaks and crepe myrtles he planted and his willingness to help a neighbor, especially one with a mechanical problem involving a lawn mower. In addition to caring for his parents for many years, he became a caregiver for his mother-in-law Sue Nichols and her husband Johnny in their final years.

We knew Luther, too, for being a great shot and a reluctant fisherman who supplied gear for others, for playing saxophone and piano, for pitching in to make ordinary days and national holidays more fun, and for giving a perfect—though inadvertent—imitation of Boomhauer’s voice in “King of the Hill.” His kindness in matters of injury, life and death, and mechanical failure, and his quick willingness to support and assist others—stranger, friend or family member, dog, cat, bird, or chicken—always in his low-key, laconic, effective way set us a memorable example. We will greatly miss his presence.

Luther was preceded in death by his parents and first wife. He is survived by his sons and his sister Melanie and her children Andrea and Paul; by his wife Elizabeth and her children Emily (Marshall), Thomas (Brianna), and Anne (Shane); his 12 grandchildren; sisters-in-law Carla and Kelly, several first cousins, and good friends, including Chris Ruebeck of Sherman and Lucille Thomas of Waco. He was loved and appreciated by Beth’s Walton and Moore cousins in Central and East Texas and by her nieces and nephew.

The immediate family held a memorial and luncheon to honor Luther’s life on Saturday, January 20.

In lieu of flowers, those who desire are invited to make a donation to the Shriner’s Hospitals for Children or to the charity of their choice.