Julian Talmadge Mayo was born in the Toole Community on July 2, 1920, Henderson County, Texas. He went home to be with his Lord on August 28, 2010 at the age of 90 years. He graduated from nearby Mabank High School at the age of 16 and “rough necked” in the Toole Oil Field for three years prior to entering Texas A&M University in the fall of 1941.World War II interrupted his pursuit of higher education and like a lot ofyoung men of his era, he volunteered for the war. He went to Officer Candidate School, and then he served as a First Lieutenant in the 525th Light Pontoon Company, Core of Engineers under General George Patton’s Third U.S. Army. Talmadge, as platoon leader of 56 men, got down on his knees and asked the Lord to allow him to bring all of his men back home. The Lord answered his prayer and he safely guided his men while his platoon built Bailey Bridges for the 3rd army’s tanks to cross the German rivers. Talmadge did not have one casualty from the platoon under his leadership.

After the war, Mayo again entered A&M and was graduated in January of 1947 with a BS in Mechanical engineering. He worked as an engineer with Dallas Air Conditioning Company prior to moving to the San Perlita community to enter farming in partnership with his father David Vernon Mayo in the fall of 1949.

When Germany surrendered in WWII, Allied troops remained in Europe for a while and were stationed in different areas commandeered for housing of the troops. Talmadge’s platoon was housed in the Eder Brewery which was established in 1872. While there, he, like many GIs, took home a memento that was, in this case, an ornate beer mug from the brewery. For years when asked about the mug he would anguish over taking it and would make a moral point to his children about choices in life, right and wrong. Exactly 50 years later he traveled to Germany in 1995 to return the mug. Talmadge handed the mug back to the descendant that currently owns the Eder Brewery only to find that there was only one other in existence. That stein now resides in a German museum with the inscription that it was returned by a soldier from Texas 50 years after WWII.

Talmadge served his community in the capacity of:Rio Grande Valley Sugar Growers Board, Valley Telephone Coop Director, Raymondville Bank of Texas Director, Valley Baptist Medical Center Harlingen, Texas Director, Deacon Raymondville First Baptist Church, Texas Agricultural Experiment Station Advisory Committee for Field Crops and Sugar Cane Board,Trustee of San Perlita ISD and Master Mason.

He was preceded in death by his parents Ina Pearl Curlin Mayo, David Vernon Mayo, and his wife Zelda Adaline Brown Mayo. He is survived by two children: Malda Mayo Burns and husband, Richard Burns, of Rockdale, TX, J.T. Mayo, Jr. and wife, Mary Ruth Mayo, of San Perlita, TX, three grandchildren: Lamar Burns Ontko and husband Chad, Julie Burns Masek and husband Brad and Dustin Vernon Mayo and four great grandchildren: Emory Lynn Ontko, Madison Lea Masek, Anne Carson Ontko and Andrew Stephen Ontko.

The family would like to thank Diana Lopez and Victoria Orellano for their love and care of their father in his last years.

A memorial service will he held on Saturday, September 4, at 10 a.m. at the First Baptist Church in Raymondville.

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