James “Jamie” Buford Briggs, former president of the Lampasas Independent School District Board of Trustees and longtime Boys State chairman for American Legion Post 277, died Oct. 5, 2024.
Services will be held at Grace Fellowship Church on Oct. 8 at 2 p.m., with visitation an hour prior. Burial will follow at Oak Hill Cemetery. Sneed-Carnley Funeral Chapel has charge of arrangements.
Briggs was born Nov. 16, 1940, at Rollins-Brook Hospital in Lampasas to Alfred Buford Briggs and Jewell Dean McCrea Briggs.
After his parents divorced, Briggs was reared by his mother. Starting at age 11, he worked after school and on Saturdays at White’s Auto Store, earning $2.50 a week. Thereafter, he had a wide variety of jobs.
He was baptized at First Baptist Church in Lampasas and kept his strong Christian faith throughout life.
He graduated from Lampasas High School in 1959. Briggs was an Eagle Scout, competed in the UIL slide rule competition, played football and ran track, and served as class president during his junior and senior years.
Briggs received a Bachelor of Science from Texas A&M University in 1964, which at the time was an all-male military school. While a cadet at Texas A&M, he served as first sergeant in Company B-1. He was a member of the Ross Volunteers, recognized as both a distinguished student and a distinguished military cadet.
To pay for college, he spent his summers working for the United States Forest Service in Idaho and Montana, and as a switchman for the Southern Pacific Railroad in San Antonio.
After graduating, he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the United States Army, Field Artillery. During his first tour at Fort Hood, he met Dorothy Ann Reed on a blind date that led to a marriage of 57 years. They had one daughter, Marcia Ann Briggs.
In the Army, Briggs had command, staff and teaching assignments with duty stations at Fort Hood, Texas; Vietnam; Fort Sill, Oklahoma; graduate school at Texas A&M (master’s degree in education); United States Military Academy at West Point, New York; Korea; Texas A&I in Kingsville, Texas; Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas; and Baumholder, Germany. His third and final tour was at Fort Hood, where he retired in 1986 as a lieutenant colonel with 22 years of service.
After retirement, Briggs ran the ROTC program for Sidney Lanier High School in San Antonio. In 1988, they moved back home to Lampasas, and he taught school in Lampasas and Burnet.
In 1992, he started Briggs Oak Wilt Service and traveled all over Central Texas treating oak trees for the oak wilt disease. He became a certified arborist from the International Society of Arboriculture, and after 26 years he sold his business.
Briggs served as president of the Lampasas ISD Board of Trustees for nine years. In 2009, he was the driving force in passage of a bond that enabled the district to build a new Lampasas High School campus and Taylor Creek Elementary School.
He served on the American Heart Association board, the Spring Ho Committee and Board of Directors. He was a life member of the Sons of The Republic of Texas. He also was a member of the Kiwanis Club, VFW, AMVETS and American Legion Post 277, where he served as commander and the Boys State chairman.
Briggs loved to hunt mule deer in West Texas, fish, read history, play table games, travel, and attend Lampasas Badger and Texas Aggie sports. He and his wife were grand marshals of the 42nd annual Spring Ho Festival Parade. In 2022, he published a book on “Memories of James B. Briggs.”
He was preceded in death by his sister, Berta Dean Briggs Stanukinos, and his daughter, Marcia Ann Briggs.
He is survived by his wife, Dorothy Ann Briggs; his nephew, Stanley Stanukinos, and three great-nephews, T.J., Samuel and Luke; the McCrea cousins; the Briggs cousins; the Reed family nephews and nieces; Rhonda and Randy Blanton and family; and his adopted family, the entire family of Dick and Juanita Procter -- Pepper, Kellie, Paris, Presli and Maci Procter, and Richard, Jena, Jack, Victoria and Katie Procter, Sami Kinsey and family, Cindy and George Goertz and family, Dixie and Kerry McGrath and family.
Memorials may be made to the Marcia Ann Briggs Scholarship Fund (Cadence Bank) or the charity of one’s choice.
