Leslie B. Bryan

    Leslie Boyce Bryan passed away on Sunday, November 17, 2024 in Waco, TX. Visitation will be 9:00 am to 10:00 am Monday, November 25, 2024 at the First Baptist Church of Mart. Funeral Services will follow at 10:00 am with burial at Mart Cemetery.    

   Leslie Boyce Bryan was born on a Magnolia Oil Company pump farm near Groesbeck, Texas in Limestone County. As his father was promoted and transferred within Magnolia Oil, Boyce, a name used by his parents and sisters, spent his childhood in Katy, Texas, and teen years in Luling, and Sealy, Texas. His early life was shaped by small-town values and a love of learning. Interestingly, he went through two full senior years in high school—one in Luling and another in Sealy. In the fall of 1942, he began his freshman year at Texas A&M University.  

   The previous December, Pearl Harbor had changed the course of history and in early 1943, now 18 years old, his draft notice arrived and Leslie answered the call to serve his country. In March, Private Leslie Boyce Bryan began infantry basic training at Camp Wheeler near Macon, Georgia. While there and marching past a building, a sign posted on the wall caught his eye: “If you are good at math and science, inquire inside.” He was and he did! In June, Leslie was transferred to the U.S. Army Air Corps, starting a new chapter of service that took him to training bases across Texas, Mississippi, and at Marshall University in West Virginia. Assigned to a B-24 Liberator squadron, Leslie completed bombardier training at Mountain Home, Idaho, and later, in a twist of fate, he was in one of only six crews (out of 66 total) assigned to Aerial Mapping and Photo Reconnaissance School in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. As a Lieutenant Navigator, Leslie was solely responsible for guiding his plane and crew on a solo flight from Florida, to Brazil, then Africa, and India to join the 24th Combat Mapping Squadron in Gushkara, India. During the last year of the war, he and his crew flew long-distance critical supply and photo recon missions in the China-Burma-India Theater. Post war, while stationed at Clark Field in the Philippines, Lt. Bryan’s squadron was assigned the task of documenting most of the Pacific area battle sites, photographing depots, facilities, equipment and cemeteries to preserve the legacy of the war. In August 1946, his military journey came to an end when he returned to San Francisco aboard a freighter. 

   Following the war and back in Texas, Leslie attended Baylor University in Waco, where he earned a Bachelors of Business Administration degree in 1949. It was during his time at Baylor that he met and married the love of his life, Brownie Inez Horner of Teague, Texas. The couple made their home in Mart, Texas, where Leslie embarked on a 30-year career with Mart Independent School District, initially serving as a teacher, coach and principal. In 1952 Coach Bryan, along with his assistant Coach Jim Kemp lead the panthers to a 10-2 record, a tremendous turnaround from a 2-8 record the previous year. He also started the junior high football program at Mart, restarted the boy’s baseball program (in 1953) as well as the girls’ basketball program, winning district in 1957. That same year, Pop Bryan, as he was known by Mart students and faculty alike, was promoted to Superintendent of Schools, a position he held until his retirement in 1979.

    In the years that followed, his many grandkids would also go on to lovingly call him “Pop”. Leslie was a life-long member of the First Baptist Church in Mart, serving as both treasurer (for 45 years) and deacon (for just over 60 years). He also facilitated the design and supervised the construction of the Nancy Nail Memorial Library. Leslie’s career didn’t end with retirement. He served as vice president of the Central Texas Savings and Loan in Waco and on the Board of Directors of the F&M National Bank in Mart. Then in 1983, at the invitation and insistence of Murray Watson, he became the Operations Officer for Brazos Higher Education Service Corporation, a role he continued until 2012 (at age 88).

    In 2023 after 75 years of marriage, Leslie lost his beloved Brownie, but he carried with him the love, memories, and legacy they built together. In October with family at his side, he celebrated his 100th birthday at Providence Village in Waco. Today, we reflect on and celebrate a life of service, leadership, and dedication—to his family, community, and country. His story spans a century of extraordinary events, from World War II to a lifetime of shaping the lives of students, colleagues, and loved ones.

    Leslie Boyce Bryan is preceded in death by his parents, Leslie Brennan (Kelly) Bryan (1976) and Mary Irene Grissom Bryan (1990), his sister Martha Malvonee Hall (2020) and his sister Celeta Frances Johnson (2022). 

   He is survived by his two sons, his daughter, five grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. Included are son Kelly Bryan and his wife Donna of China Spring, daughter Patti True of El Paso, son Tommy Bryan and his wife Gloriana of Hewitt, granddaughter Tiffany Johnson of China Spring and her son Rohan Johnson at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, grandson Corby Bryan and his wife Natalie and their daughter Laura of Round Rock, grandson Casey Bryan and his wife Kelly and their daughters Ava and Ivy of College Station, grandson Wesley Bryan and his wife Erin and their son Mason and daughter Reese of Hewitt, and grandson Andrew Bryan and his wife Macey of Dallas.

   In lieu of flowers, family has requested donations be given to the Mart ISD Enrichment Foundation, P.O. Box 132, Mart, TX 76664.