Harrel "Hal" Harris Knight

Funeral services for Harrel "Hal" Harris Knight, 61, of Richmond, Texas will be held at 10 a.m., Friday, October 18, 2013 at First Baptist Church in Richmond with Reverend John Lockhart officiating. A graveside service will be held at 2 p.m., Saturday, October 19, 2013 at Chapelwood Memorial Gardens in Nash, Texas. All are welcome to attend both the service and the burial. Visitation will be held from 5 p.m. until 8 p.m., Thursday, October 17, 2013 at First Baptist Church in Richmond. Hal was born December 29, 1951 in Texarkana, Arkansas to Harrel Wallace and Lillian Harris Knight. He attended high school at Texas High in Texarkana where he was an all-star baseball pitcher. He had twenty one professional scouts at one game during his junior year, but a football accident the next year prevented him from joining the big leagues. Instead, Hal lived a full life of public service. He began as a prison guard with the Texas Department of Corrections at the Central Unit in Sugar Land, Texas, and then he joined the Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office in 1975 as one of fourteen sheriff deputies. He has since worked under six different sheriffs. Over the majority of his tenure, he served as an investigator in the Criminal Warrants division. He was a Master Peace Officer. Through the years, he saw a lot of change in Fort Bend County, but he stayed true to serving the people and seeing that justice was always served. Hal was a Master Mason with the Morton Masonic Lodge #72. Hal had an entrepreneurial spirit. His many businesses included: owning and operating several fireworks stands throughout Fort Bend County, owning a check cashing business and a liquor store, and owning a food trailer and barbeque catering company. He loved to cook and eat. "He didn't eat to live. He lived to eat." Hal had a personality that was truly larger than life. He never met a stranger, and he loved to make anyone he met laugh and smile. Hal was an outdoorsman who loved to hunt and fish. He taught all three of his daughters to bait a hook and to shoot a gun, and he went on countless hunting and fishing expeditions with all of his buddies. Hal loved spending time with all "his girls" more than anything. Watching football, gambling, hunting and fishing, listening to Johnny Bush and George Jones, and cooking with his daughters were a favorite pastime. Kendall and Kolby loved feeding the ducks, fishing, and ice cream dates with their Paw Paw. He was their whole world, and they were his. He passed away October 14, 2013 in Houston. He is preceded in death by his parents, Harrel and Lillian Knight, step mother, Joan Knight; and sister, Kathy Sue Knight. Hal is survived by his daughters, Karmen Cooley and husband, Blake, Kristi Ward and husband, Aaron and Kassie Slaydon and husband, Chad; grandchildren, Kendall and Kolby Cooley; step sisters, Susan Simmons, Julie Ahr and husband, Tom and Pat Douglass and husband, Rod; along with numerous extended family and friends. Pallbearers will include Jerry Clements, Rodney Glendenning, Russell Henson, Ronnie Hornischer, Tommy Johnson, Allen Kucera, Danny Lenderman, & Billy Shields. Honorary Pallbearers are Chester Davis & Gary Grawnoski. For those wishing, memorials may be made in Hal's name to First Baptist Church-Richmond, 502 S. 5th Street, Richmond, Texas 77469 or to M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, earmarked Sarcoma Research, P.O. Box 4486, Houston, Texas 77210-4486. Words of condolence may be left for the Knight family at www.davisgreenlawnfh.com.

Tributes

Harrel "Hal" Harris Knight

December 29, 1951 - October 14, 2013