Louis Burton, age 96, passed away peacefully on Thursday, May 19, 2022, following a life of love for and dedicated service to family, friends, country, and community.

A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, June 1, 2022, at Trinity Baptist Church, John Wheat officiating.

Louis was born December 9, 1925, in Kerrville, Texas, the youngest of Allie B. and Jeannette (Standefer) Burton's three children. Louis's father was executive vice president of the old First State Bank of Kerrville and in 1916 established the Burton Insurance Agency, which operated in Kerrville for the next 79 years, first on Water Street near the Arcadia Theatre and later on the corner of Main and Quinlan Streets.

As a boy, Louis loved to fish and swim. He took up his lifelong passion of tennis as an eighth grader alongside his best friend Tom Heard. At Tivy High School, they played doubles together, beating teams from much larger schools in Austin and San Antonio to win Tivy's first regional tennis championship and making it all the way to the state semifinals. They paired up again in college to win a University of Texas intramural championship.

Louis graduated from Tivy in 1943 and enrolled at Baylor University, but soon transferred to the University of Texas to join the Navy's wartime V-12 officer training program. As an undergraduate, he played French horn in the UT marching band, which had the not-so-incidental benefit of allowing him to see every game of his beloved Longhorn football team in those pre-television days. (As a sixth grader, he had played in the first ever Tivy High School Band because the school was short of high-school musicians.)

After graduating from UT in 1946 with a degree in mechanical engineering, he served as an ensign aboard the USS General William Mitchell, a large transport ship that shuttled troops and supplies to and from Japan, China, Guam, and Hawaii.

Louis left the Navy in 1947 and moved to Lockhart, Texas to teach high school. Over summer breaks, he returned to UT to pursue a master's degree in mathematics, which he completed in 1952. During this period, he met his wife-to-be, Patricia Ruth Scott, who was a UT undergraduate. The two wed in 1951 and a year later moved from Lockhart to Kerrville. For the next eight years, Louis taught math and physics at Tivy and coached the junior high football team. He also served as Tivy's first tennis coach (Tivy tennis having been a ''coach free'' affair going back to his teenage years). He built a strong program that won four state championships in boys and girls doubles under his direction.

In 1960, Louis left teaching to take over the family insurance business, which he ran for the next 35 years until he sold it in 1995 and retired. Both his customers and the insurance companies he represented appreciated his dedication and meticulousness in the handling of insurance matters. He was once recognized as one of the outstanding independent insurance agents in Texas, an honor bestowed on only five agents statewide that year.

He was a member of the Kerrville Kiwanis Club for almost 60 years, serving as its president in 1966-67. In this, he mirrored the legacy of his father, who had been a charter member and its first president. Louis was also a member of Trinity Baptist Church, following in the footsteps of his mother, who had been a charter member instrumental in its founding. He became a deacon in 1954, was Sunday School superintendent for 17 years, and sang for 60 years in the choir.

In retirement, Louis and Pat traveled throughout the world and treasured their grandson born conveniently one month into that retirement. Louis maintained civic participation by tutoring students in math at Hill Country High School and mentoring boys at Starkey Elementary School until his health began to decline. In 2009, he was inducted into the Tivy Athletic Hall of Fame along with the members of his highly successful 1959 tennis team. He continued playing tennis with friends and competing in tournaments until the age of 88.

Never one to be rushed, Louis was easy going and had a smile and kind word for everyone he met. He was a devoted husband and parent, rearing two sons in addition to being a much appreciated teacher, coach, and friend. In his nine-plus decades, he touched the lives of countless individuals, and was prized for his sense of humor and tireless commitment to helping others. He will be sorely missed.

He is survived by his wife of 70 years, Patricia; son, Mark Burton of San Francisco; son, Lee Burton of Austin; daughter-in-law, Diana Burton of Austin; grandson, James Burton of New York City; granddaughter, Elizabeth Burton of Austin; and numerous nieces and nephews. He is also survived by his brother, Allie B. Burton, Jr. of Ingram, and was preceded in death by his sister, Margaret Burton Wheat of Manhattan, Kansas. Had Louis been granted a few more weeks of life, he would have lived to see the birth of his second grandson, young Elizabeth's soon-to-be sibling.

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