DORIS MEEKIE RICE HERRINGTON GARDING, 68, died on
Sept. 13, 1988, in Vancouver, WA, with burial in a
rural cemetery in Woodland.
Doris Meekie Rice attended Ranger schools through age
17, finishing all but the last semester of her senior
year. Most likely her year of graduation would have
been 1937. Born in Ranger, TX on Aug. 20, 1920 in her
parents’ home at 215 Cherry Street, she was the only
child of Ward Rice and Frona Carr. He was one of the
early investors in the Ranger oil boom but died in
1922 shortly after the boom peaked. His widow then
married J.B. Ames, Sr.
Doris was first married to Phelton Herrington by whom
she had four children. They operated a dairy farm
north of Ranger where they also engaged in other types
of commercial farm life. She and the children left
the farm in 1960. After a move to Albuquerque, NM,
in 1970 she met and married Paul Garding, a civil
engineer with the Bureau of Indian Affairs. They
later retired in Vancouver. He died in 1997. She
worked as a nurse’s aide at Ranger General Hospital
for many years and as a personally trained surgical
assistant to Dr. W.P. Watkins.
At the time of her death, she was survived by her
husband Paul Garding, two sons: Mike Herrington
(RHS-1960) of Omaha, NE, and Eddie Ray Herrington
(RHS-1968) of Irving, her sister Betty Sue Brown
(RHS-1947) of Fort Worth, and seven grandchildren
as well as two stepsons. Her other two children
were a son Ernie Joe, who died in 1948, & a daughter
Meekie Ruth King (RHS-1971), who preceded Doris in
death on July 2 of the same year.
HUSBAND: JAMES PHELTON HERRINGTON, 87, died Sept. 12,
2000, with interment in Mount Zion Cemetery at LaCasa
Community north of Ranger, TX
Mr. Herrington graduated from Caddo High School and
attended Ranger Jr. College. He was a dairy farmer &
a professional calf roper on the rodeo circuit in early
Texas rodeos. He had also raised and trained roping
horses and wolfhounds and was a farmer and rancher. He
operated a gas station in Ranger for a number of years.
He was preceded in death by his wife, the former Delanie
Fuson Hood, in 1991; his son, Ernie Joe, in 1948; his
daughter, Meekie Herrington King (RHS-1971) in 1988, &
his stepdaughter, Betty Kite, in 2000. His first wife,
Doris Rice who died in 1988.
Survivors at the time of his death include two sons,
James Michael Herrington (RHS-1960) of Fort Worth,
Eddie Ray Herrington (RHS-1968) of Irving; two step-
sons, Kenneth Grady of Alamogordo, NM, John Grady of
Las Vegas, NV; seven grandchildren; 10 step-grand-
children; four great-grandchildren; numerous step-
great-grandchildren.