Wiley Cornet Fantroy

Wiley “Net” Cornet Fantroy was a Mulatto man born 21 January 1937 the son of Shedrick Fantroy and Authorine Hunter in Winkler, Freestone County, Texas. Wiley Cornet Fantroy was aware of his mixed-race ancestral lineage; however, as with his father and mother, his tanned complexion ensured he would be treated as a Black (Negro) person regardless of the racial identity he chose to prominently represent. For that reason, Wiley Cornet Fantroy lived his entire lifetime as a Black person. While attending Booker T. Washington High School in Vernon, Wilbarger County, Texas, Wiley was a member of the Booker T Washington Bearcats’ junior and varsity track and field, football, and basketball teams. After 12 years as a student, Wiley graduated from Booker T Washington High School as Valedictorian with the Class of 1955. Following high school graduation, Wiley enrolled as a student at Wiley College, a historically Black liberal arts college located in Marshall, Harrison County, Texas. Disliking the room and board with which he had been provided, Wiley discontinued his pursuit of higher education at Wiley College during his freshman year and joined the U. S. Army wherein he served for three years. Wiley was honorably discharged as a Private First Class at the end of his initial enlistment.

Circa 1957, Wiley Cornet Fantroy began his relationship with the woman he would marry, Sylvia Joyce Brown (aka Joy). Prior to marrying, Wiley and Sylvia had two children: Bertram Curtis Fantroy Sr. and Rosalind Fantroy. On 30 December 1961 in Fort Worth, Tarrant County, Texas, Wiley Cornet Fantroy married Sylvia Joyce Brown, is a Black woman born the daughter of Samuel Horace Brown, Jr. and Maggie Lean McCain in 1941 in Millican, Brazos County, Texas. Following their marriage, Wiley Cornet and Sylvia Joyce (Brown) Fantroy had their third child, Marjorie Yolanda Fantroy. Wiley and Sylvia Joyce were married for more than 63 years; and only Wiley’s death could separate them.

After his discharge from the U. S. Army, Wiley accepted employment as a truck driver, packer of household goods and personal effects, and transporter for Lewis Transfer Moving and Storage, Inc.—a nationwide transfer, moving, and storage company providing professional packing and moving services for residential and commercial customers relocating either locally or cross-country. Shortly after their marriage in 1961, Wiley Cornet and Sylvia Joyce (Brown) Fantroy purchased a home in Grand Prairie, Texas; and they were still residing in that home at the time of Wiley’s death. In 1962, after working approximately four years with Lewis Transfer Moving and Storage, Wiley accepted employment with General Motors Corporation at the General Motors Assembly Plant in Arlington, Texas. He worked in various areas of the plant and performed various facets of automobile assembly during his long and successful career with General Motors. After 29 years of employment with General Motors Corporation, Wiley retired in 1991 as Supervisor of the Trim Department. While employed by General Motors Corp., Wiley also worked part-time as an Amway Salesman and Distributor, primarily of home care products and of health and beauty aids (personal care products). When Wiley closed his Amway distribution business, he supplemented his income earned from work at the General Motors plant by working part-time as a shade tree automobile mechanic in partnership with a friend, L. V. Alexander.

After Wiley retired from General Motors, Wiley discontinued his part-time work as a mechanic and established and operated a home repair and remodeling business providing interior and exterior painting, general carpentry, drywall, and light home remodeling services in Grand Prairie, Texas and surrounding communities. Characteristically an industrious person with an unquenchable entrepreneurial spirit and a wholesome outlook on life, Wiley owned and operated his home repair and remodeling business until his failing health eventually convinced him to retire from that work. Once bitten by the golfing bug, Wiley Cornet Fantroy spent his free time on various golf courses in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metropolitan area. He was an avid golfer who engaged himself in the pleasurable pursuit of that elusive hole-in-one. He remained a golfer until his failing health made it impossible for him to participate in his favorite past time and hobby.

Wiley Cornet Fantroy was a person of boundless intellect and wisdom, extraordinarily good character, a good sense of humor, and always a person of good-hearted nature. Wiley was highly respected for his well-reasoned counsel and sound advice. For those reasons, Wiley made being around him a pleasure for everyone graced by his presence. Achieving age 88, Wiley Cornet Fantroy lived an exemplary life as a loving husband, father, grandparent, brother, uncle and provider for his family. He succumbed to death on 28 March 2025 in Arlington, Tarrant County, Texas.

Wiley was preceded in death by both of his parents as well as by all of his grandparents, uncles, and aunts. Of his twelve siblings, he was preceded in death by his brothers: Dean Everett Fantroy and Leon B. “Chunk” Fantroy; and by his sisters: Shirley Carol (Fantroy) Stoker, Brenda Renae (Fantroy) Whiteside, Dale Laverne (Fantroy) Gaines, and Pamela Kaye Bell.

Wiley is survived by his wife, Sylvia Joyce (Brown) Fantroy, son: Bertram “Bert” Curtis Fantroy Sr. (Genevia Beans) of Grand Prairie, TX; two daughters: Rosalind “Sister” Fantroy and Marjorie “Scooda” Yolanda Fantroy of Grand Prairie, TX; a grandson, Bertram Curtis Fantroy Jr.; his brothers: Anthony Fantroy (Johnnie Mae), Ward Keith Fantroy (Elsabeth Tadesse), Michael Emmett Fantroy (Linda Gail), and David Bell Jr. (Vanessa Lynn); his sisters: Sheila Monice (Fantroy-Bell) Gaines (Wendell Louis Sr.) and Imelda Jean (Bell) Flowers (George Clarette); as well as by numerous nieces, nephews, grandnieces, grandnephews, great-grandnieces, and great-grandnephews.