Vergil Long

Vergil Long, of Kosse, passed away at the Groesbeck LTC on Monday, August 2, 2010, at age 89. Visitation will be Tuesday, August 3, 2010, from 6:00 to 8:00 P.M. at the Groesbeck Funeral Home. Services will be at 3:00 P.M. on Wednesday, August 4, 2010, at the Groesbeck Funeral Home Chapel, with Rev. John Montgomery officiating. Interment will be on Friday at 11:00 A.M. at Brookside Memorial Park in Houston. Vergil was born on July 18, 1921 in Humble, Texas, to Tom Long and Lillie (Busch) Long. He grew up in Humble. After he graduated from Humble High School, he spent the next two years living in the woods and fishing on the San Jacinto River. When Pearl Harbor was attacked in 1941, he went to work at the Houston Ship Yards on the Liberty Ships, where he learned the sheet metalwork trade. Vergil was a sheet metal worker in Local Union #54 for 45 years until retiring in 1986. He remained a member of the Union for more than 60 years. Vergil married Betty Jean Gubus and they started their life together in Kansas City, Missouri, where their first child, Sulane was born. While in Kansas City, Vergil worked in Omaha, Nebraska for a period on the construction of Father Flanagan’s Boy’s Town. He was proud to have been involved with this project. Then the family moved to the Houston Heights where their two sons were born. While his sons were growing up, Vergil was a dedicated Scout Master with Scout Troup #22 of the Heights Christian Church. He took the scouts and his sons on many camping trips, and taught them gun safety, respect for the woods and all wildlife, and responsibility. In 1965, the family moved to the Long Family property at Lake Houston, where he lived until 1992. Vergil loved history, and geneology, and spent a lot of his spare time in research of his family, tracing his grandfather Henry Long’s life back through the Civil War, and his prior entry into the country at Galveston on a ship from Germany. He has left his family with many interesting records of their history. After his retirement, Vergil was looking for the river setting of his youth and a good deer lease, so he and his son Allen drove down toward Central Texas and soon found Kosse, which he immediately knew would be his new home. He found a wooded tract for his son and daughter-in-law to buy and him to live. He moved to rural Kosse in 1992 and built a cabin. The rest of his life, Vergil enjoyed the wildlife in his yard, feeding the birds, fishing, and playing with his great grandchildren. He was also a very active member of the Kosse Methodist Church. Mr. Long was preceded in death by his parents; his wife Betty, who passed away in 1972; and by all nine of his brothers and sisters. He is survived by a son and daughter-in-law, Allen and Pat Long of Kosse; a son and daughter-in-law, Kenneth and Kay Long of Porter; and a daughter and son-in-law, Sulane and Wayne Roesler of Houston; 7 grandchildren; 16 great grandchildren; and many nieces and nephews.