CHARLES WALTER ‘CHUCK’ MASSEY

Charles Walter “Chuck” Massey passed away peacefully following a brief illness on April 19, 2023. He was 80 years. He was born to Roy Alvin and Abbie (O’Neal) Massey on May 6, 1942, in Memphis, Texas. He attended school in Memphis from first grade at West Ward Elementary School to graduation from Memphis High School in 1960. When he was not in school, he was down at the creek with his best friends, Swayne McCauley and Don Deaver. That friendship continued into the future with the Saturday Morning Breakfast Club, a small group of loyal Memphis High School alumni, who met weekly in Cedar Park. Charles played basketball and football in high school, but his favorite sport was golf, and he played often at the Memphis Country Club. He also had a talent for music and studied guitar with one of the Gillam brothers in Memphis. He later formed a small band in California.After high school, Charles attended Tyler Junior College and West Texas A&M.

In 1962, Charles moved to Los Angeles, Calif., where he was employed by the Los Angeles Water Department as a Master Draftsman. He met and fell in love with Claire Rita Guidry. They married and had two sons, Brian Andrew and David Scott.

Charles left the Los Angeles Water department, and the family moved back to Texas, eventually settling in Arlington, where, in 1980, Chuck formed his own company, Massey Business Products, supplying hospitals and businesses with custom paper forms. Their two sons, Richard Charles and Brandon O’Neal, were born in Arlington. It was also in Arlington that Chuck began to draw on his heritage as the son of Alvin Massey and grandson of Joseph Albert Massey, both of whom were master carpenters in Memphis. He began with small remodeling tasks at home, which branched into a source of income as he began to build and market treadle swings, adapted from a prototype designed and built by his grandfather J.A. Massey in 1910. His business

“Swings N Such” was born. He progressed from treadle swings to remodeling kitchens, building artistic fences and designing custom office furniture. He also added guitar making to his repertoire and fashioned a custom guitar as a gift for his musician son, David.

Charles is survived by Claire,his wife of 59 years,and by sons Brian Andrew,of Austin, Texas, David Scott, of Leander, Texas, Richard Charles, of Dallas,Texas, and Brandon O’Neal, of Waco,Texas. He is also survived by granddaughters Savannah Ray, Lauren Claire, Alexa Faith and Madison Star and grandsons Sean Thomas, Blake O'Neal and Carter O’Neal. Charles is survived by his sisters, Margaret Ann Leeds, Ouida Pearl Bradshaw and Abbie Louise Cotrell (Charles). A brother, Roy Alvin, preceded him in death.