This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Mann, Grey, Meroney Classification: Obituary Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/hkB.2ACE/8482 Message Board Post: Rockdale Reporter, Thur., 17 Mar 2005 Mann CAMERON - Robert Wayne Mann, 89, a Cameron resident since 1953 and for 30 years the area’s chief conservationist for the Soil Conservation Service (SCS), died Thursday, March 10, in a Cameron hospital. Funeral services were held 4 p.m. Sunday at Marek-Burns-Laywell Funeral Home with Rev. Mike O’Neil officiating. Burial followed in the Oak Hill Cemetery. He was born Sept. 10, 1915 in Jacksboro to William Butler and Pansy Evelyn (Grey) Mann. His family for decades had farmed and ranched in Jack County and operated a dairy and a poultry hatchery in downtown Jacksboro. While growing up with five brothers and sisters on the rugged farm and ranch land in that part of Texas, Mr. Mann developed an affinity for agriculture, livestock and the land. Long before “environmentalism” became a household word, he was advising Milam County farmers and ranchers on irrigation, crop rotation, soil erosion and other agricultural practices to enhance crop and grazing land production. He attended Texas Tech University. He married Vivian Louise Meroney on May 8, 1943.   He and his wife were active Democrats and often hosted statewide office holders, including U.S. Sen. Bob Krueger, and the last being Texas Land Commissioner Garry Mauro when he ran for governor in 1998. Former UT All-American quarterback Marty Akins paid a personal visit to Mann when he visited Cameron in 2002 and he worked with three congressmen—Bob Poage, Marvin Leath and Chet Edwards when they represented Milam County. Mr. Mann had also visited with U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy in Washington on agricultural matters. After retiring from federal service (the SCS was a division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture), Mr. Mann operated Mann Real Estate with son John Scott Mann eventually joining him in the real estate and appraisal business. Mr. Mann served in the U.S. Army Air Corps in North Africa and Italy in World War. II. In 1953, he was named Unit Conservationist for the SCS. Mr. Mann served as commander of the Edwin Hardy Post No. 9 American Legion and was founder and president of the city’s Babe Ruth Baseball League in the late 1950s and early ‘60s. He was a 50-year Mason and was an active member of the San Andres Lodge in Cameron. He was a member of the First Presbyterian Church in Cameron and the Cameron Rotary Club. Mr. Mann was preceded in death by his parents and brothers Dub and Darwin Mann and a sister, Nancy Jones. Survivors include his wife of 62 years, Vivian Louise Mann of Cameron; two sons, Robert Lee Mann of Austin, Johnny Scott Mann of Austin; daughter, Peggy Louise Marshall of Arlington; two sisters, Margaret Hamzy of Dallas, Marinelle Knight of Dallas; four grandchildren, nine great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild.