Roy Franklin “Butch” Petty passed away at his home in Putnam, Texas, early in the morning of November 19, 2024, after a short but hard-fought final battle with cancer.
He was born on May 31, 1942, to John and Gertrude Fry Petty in Brownwood, Texas. He moved to Putnam while he was in grade school, graduating from Putnam High School in 1960. On December 21, 1960, he married his childhood sweetheart, Rubye Elizabeth “Beth” Isenhower. Butch and Beth moved to Lubbock where he attended barber school and began working as a barber first in Lubbock and then in Brownwood. On September 1, 1965, Butch began training at the Department of Public Safety Trooper Academy in Austin, graduating as a Driver’s License Officer in December 1965. After several assignments in various locations around Texas, Butch moved his family to Eastland in November 1967. For the next 25 years, Officer Petty issued thousands of driver’s licenses to teenage drivers in Eastland, Callahan, Shackleford, and Stevens counties. When he wasn’t issuing licenses, Butch was a Pony League and Little League coach, the Assistant Scoutmaster for troop 103, a member of the Eastland High School Band Boosters and Athletic Boosters clubs, and the Kiwanis Club. He especially enjoyed his time in the 1980s filming Eastland Maverick football games on Friday nights.
After retiring from the DPS in 1992, Butch enjoyed working in the local photo shop as a developer and photographer. He also began to hone his skill of wood carving, a hobby that he continued up until his death. He was a member of the Texas Woodcarvers Guild and the DPS Roadrunners. Butch and Beth eventually moved back to Putnam and enjoyed traveling in their Airstream camper, mainly throughout Colorado in the summers. He was a devoted Pawpaw to his grandchildren and enjoyed taking them on the camping trips to Colorado where they would fish, pick up rocks, and learn to wood carve.
