Harold Windell Harton Sr., 94, of Lampasas died at home on June 21, 2022.
Visitation will be held on June 30 from 6-8 p.m. at Sneed-Carnley Funeral Chapel.
Services will take place at First Baptist Church in Lampasas on July 1 at 2 p.m. A private burial will be held at a later date.
Harton was born May 26, 1928 in Burnet to Holly Edwin and Charity Love Harton. He was reared in Briggs, where he attended school and graduated from high school in 1945.
He and Martha Yvonne Bell married on Dec. 14, 1945. Both were 17 years old at the time. They were married for 75 years before her death in July 2020.
The couple moved to Lampasas in 1945, and in 1947 they joined First Baptist Church.
Harton had numerous vocational pursuits over his lifetime. He started barbering at Fort Hood while in high school, following in the career of his father. In 1952, he bought a barber shop on the north side of the courthouse square. After the Mother’s Day flood of 1957 inundated the downtown area and destroyed businesses, Harton moved his barber shop to Key Avenue.
He began a long career in school photography in 1963, and for 28 years took individual student photos, yearbook photos and action shots for sports.
Then he became a licensed real estate broker and a Master Senior Appraiser. In 1992, he opened Harold Harton Real Estate in his Key Avenue building.
Harton also was a gunsmith, taught hunter’s safety courses and firearms safety training, and he wrote for national gun magazines.
His “Gun Talk” column was featured over the years in the Lampasas Dispatch Record.
Music also was an avid interest of Harton’s. He played several instruments, including the ukulele, guitar and tenor banjo, and he sang bass.
He is survived by his daughter, Charlotte Jane Bell and husband Joe; son, Harold “Hal” Windell Harton Jr. and wife Sue; granddaughters Dawn Sappington and husband Steve, Marci Tomme and husband Dean, and Holly Sheppard and husband Bradley; grandsons Scott Harton, Greg Bell and wife Sarah, and Jason Bell and wife Gigi; great-grandchildren Sadie Kleppel and husband Dylan, Maddie Grace Tomme and Jaxon Tomme, Ephraim Sheppard and Eli Sheppard, Andrew Bell and Joseph Bell; numerous nieces and nephews; and a special cousin, Ray Bizzel and wife Dorothy.
Harton was preceded in death by his wife and by a great-granddaughter, Sarah Sappington.
Memorials may be made to the Sarah Sappington Memorial Scholarship Fund c/o First Texas Bank, P.O. Box 671, Lampasas, TX 76550.
