John Wayne Webb

ARLINGTON -- John Wayne “Spider” Webb, 87, passed away peacefully in his sleep on May 3, 2013, in Arlington. Funeral: 1:00 PM Friday, May 10 in Wade Family Funeral Home Chapel, 4140 W. Pioneer Parkway, Arlington, with Marty Younkin officiating. Memorials: In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to the Alzheimer's Association (www.alz.org) or Community Hospice of Texas (www.chot.org). John was born June 21, 1925, in Epley, Mississippi to John J. and Thelma T. Webb. He graduated from Sumrall High School and entered the Navy during WWII, though the war ended before he completed pilot training. He earned a GI Bill bachelor's degree in geology in 1949 with some graduate hours at Mississippi State. He found a job with Western Geophysical Company as a geophysicist and started a long journey of exploration of the western and southern US, Alaska, Canada, and Mexico, in the search for petroleum, as a “doodlebugger.” In 1952, he married Margaret Charlotte Larson of Douglas, WY. Their marriage produced two children, and involved 57 moves over his career. He retired in Houston after 35 years with Western Geophysical and relocated to Arlington in 2000. John was known to his parents and brother's family as Wayne, and to many others as Spider, a product of an early boss complaining of too many men in the office named John. To his children, grandchildren and great grandchildren, he was The Poppa. He was proud of and delighted by the grandchildren and great grandchildren and he enjoyed every opportunity for family gatherings. John was a vegetable gardener, starting in earnest in Metarie, LA in 1965. When he retired, he took up golf and played several days a week (walking, no carts). He loved aviation, trains, history, museums, geology, and the wilderness, and he and Margaret traveled extensively in their retirement. A skilled marksman, he was a hunter of deer, geese, squirrels, and doves. As the great grandson of confederate soldiers, he was an avid student of the Civil War and WWII. He is preceded in death by his parents, John and Thelma Webb. Survivors: Wife of 60 years, Margaret Webb; brother, Earl Ray Webb and wife Ondean of Epley, Mississippi; son, Dennis John Webb and wife Cecil Ann of Mansfield; daughter Carolyn Jean Chappell and husband Nathan of Arlington; grandchildren Kristin Chappell Cummings and husband Eric of Coppell, and Brian Chappell and wife Mique of Mansfield; great-grandchildren Elizabeth and Henry Cummings, and Isaac, Alec, and Emma Chappell; niece Jenny Thames and nephew Robert Grover; and many friends from his and Margaret's long travels.