Royce Boyce

Services will be at 2:00 P.M. on Saturday, June 13, 2015 at Brooks Chapel with Shawn Wyly officiating. Burial will be in Memory Gardens Cemetery. Royce E. 'Cotton' Boyce was born on March 5, 1927 in Rogers New Mexico to Ely and Nancy Wallan Boyce. They moved to Canyon in 1930, where Cotton grew up and attended school. During his teenage years, he worked for Roy Byrd, Sr. at Black Lantern Headquarters as a farm hand, driving a tractor and tending cattle. Cotton was one of the first members of the Canyon Roping Club. He joined the Navy in 1943 and was honorably discharged in 1946. He married Martha Lousie Sharp on October 19, 1946 in Canyon and she preceded him in death on May 24, 2010. Cotton started his forty year employment with Southwestern Public Services as a ground man in Canyon in 1948. He also worked for SPS in Pampa, Panhandle, Groom, Boise City, and retired in Canyon as General Foreman of the Line Department and Substation Department. Cotton served as Scout Master in Panhandle and served on the Volunteer Fire Department and EMS in Groom, where he also helped pioneer the ambulance service. He served as president of the Groom ISD School Board. He was named 'Outstanding Citizen of the Year' by the Jaycees in Boise City and served for several years as Grand Judge for the Lineman's Lone Star Rodeo with SPS. He was a Boss Lion in the Groom Lion's Club, vice president of Rotary Club in Boise City, and a Master Mason in the Canyon Masonic Lodge #730. He loved cattle roping, hunting with his beloved dog, Fritz, and barbed wire collecting throughout Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Colorado. He was a wonderful, loving and caring father and was a rock to his family who loved him dearly. He was also preceded in death by three sisters, Nancy Jane Boyce, Bonnie Brown, and Viola Glenn, and his brother, Ely I. Boyce, Jr. The family would like to thank the care givers at Ussery-Roan for their loving care. Survivors include his son, Steve Boyce and wife, Tracy, of Cimarron, NM; two daughters, Beverly Boyce Grimes, of Sulphur Springs, and Tammy Curry and husband, Anthony, of Keller; four grandsons, Jeff Boyce, Jason Boyce, Aaron Miller, and Micah Miller; two granddaughters, Amy Pruett and Cali Beth Curry; and numerous great grandchildren. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests memorials be to the Tex Randall Project % Canyon Main Street, 1604 4th Avenue, Canyon, Texas 79015 or to Cal Farley's Boys Ranch, PO Box 1890, Amarillo, Texas 79174.