Combest
Friday, August 8, 2008 10:48 AM CDT
PITTSBURG – Judge Preston Combest, 70, died Thursday, Aug. 7, 2008, in Pittsburg.
Services will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 9, at Emmanuel Baptist Church with the Rev. Kyle Smith officiating, assisted by Bob Jones and Bro. Virgil Faires. Interment will follow at Bogata Cemetery under the direction of Erman Smith Funeral Home.
Judge Combest was born on May 26, 1938, in Longview, the son of Harvey Patrick and Euphria Grace Tipps Combest. He was the eighth of their 10 children. Known to close friends as “Butch”, he attended Judson Grove schools. He enlisted in the U. S. Navy where he served aboard the USS Cadmus in the Atlantic. He later attended Kilgore College and Texas Tech University. He worked at Trailmobile, Inc and Udell Industries, later going to Air Products & Chemical at Lone Star where he worked for 19 years. He was a real estate broker and owned his own construction firm before becoming Camp County Judge where he served for 14 years. He was ordained as a deacon in 1962, and on the deacon board at Emmanuel Baptist Church where he was a member since 1973. He served on many different boards and clubs that included: Ore City School Board, the Board of Trustees of the Pittsburg M & S Hospital (now ETMC-Pittsburg), the Appraisal Review Board, East Texas Council of Governments, Pittsburg Camp County Museum Association, Pittsburg Rotary Club and many other areas of service.
He is survived by his wife of 48 years, Toni (Nona Hawkins) Combest of Pittsburg; son and daughter-in-law, Clint Preston and Julie Combest of Hughes Springs; four daughters and two sons-in-law, Melanie Annette and Becky Baxley, of Hallsville, Stacey Lynn and Tim Stansbury of Las Colinas, and Amber Delight and Rusty Ramsey of Pittsburg; 14 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren; his mother-in-law, Lucille York Hawkins Childers; two sisters and a brother-in-law, Mildred Louise Case of Lufkin and Evelyn Grace and C. P. “Buddy” Miller of Longview; two brothers and a sister-in-law, Horace Edwin Combest of Pittsburg and David Ray and Judy Combest of Longview; sisters-in-law, Geraldine Combest of Longview, Jan McCuller of Mount Pleasant, Cheryl Rogers and husband Wayne of Detroit, and Wanda Combest of Winfield, La.; and a host of friends and relatives.
He was preceded in death by his parents; a sister, Patricia Ann Combest; and four brothers, Floyd Lee Combest, Felton Eugene Combest, Wallace Wayne Combest and Joe Dean Combest.
The family will receive friends from 6 – 8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 8, at the funeral home.
Memorials may be made tothe Broach Park Recreational Complex, 126 Church Street, Pittsburg, Texas 75686; Cypress Basin Hospice, P. O. Box 544, Mount Pleasant, Texas 75456; or Emmanuel Baptist Church, 307 Elm Street, Pittsburg, Texas 75686.
