On January 23, 1938, in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, Herbert Claude (Big Tex) and Mary Edith McKinnon Bennett welcomed their blue-eyed baby boy, Texas James Bennett (Little Tex). He was the pride and joy of his parents. As a young man, he joined his father’s business, “Bennett & Son,” running custom combines and crews from Texas to the Canadian border during the harvest season. His family settled down in Eagle Butte, South Dakota, where he met and married his best friend, and love of his life, Lois Darlyne Strong. They were married on November 15, 1954, and together they celebrated 67 years of marriage.
In 1971, Tex and Lois, along with their four children, immigrated to Canada, where their fifth child was later born. Upon immigration, the family lived in the province of British Columbia, and then later moved to Alberta. Tex had a deep and profound love for the country and people of Canada. His heart for ministry took him across the country from the west coast to the east coast. He spent over 35 years working in ministry and ironwork construction, complimented by his countless, exciting adventures in his beloved Canadian Rocky Mountains.
Tex lived a full life as a tough and tender cowboy, a passionate preacher, a hard-working expert ironworker and crane rigger, and an adventurous four-wheeling, dirt-biking, and camping mountain man that his children called “Trapper Dad." He was known as a great storyteller, a custom combiner and harvest gatherer, a prayer warrior, a best friend, a dog-whisperer, and the list goes on. First and foremost, he was a pure-hearted husband, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, whose only desire was to exemplify the “Father-heart of God.” He displayed this not only to his biological family lineage, but also to countless others he considered to be his sons and daughters.
He was a man with a heart after God; a minister of the good news of the love of Jesus Christ. He himself did not claim to love “perfectly,” as only our heavenly Father can, but he loved so “purely” that his family’s lives, and the lives of countless others, have been affected for all of eternity.
He was not a materially wealthy man, but from the abundance of his heart, he did not hesitate to lavish others with a wealth of unconditional love and kindness. His intentionality was profound. Every night, he would seek his wife's hand to hold and whisper that he loved her. He took every opportunity to speak the love of Jesus over and into the lives of family members, friends, and strangers alike.
He was preceded in death by his parents; his sister, Betty Compton; his grandson, Nygell Bennett; and his beloved dog, Gus, who preceded him in death by only a few days and was there in heaven waiting to greet him.
Tex is survived by his loving wife of sixty-seven years, Lois; his two sons, Jim Bennett and his wife, Charlotte, of Fritch, Texas, and Colby Bennett and his wife, Jessy, of Fritch, Texas; his three daughters, Cheryl Lynn Hamilton and her husband, Brett, of Palm Desert, California, Gaye Lee Newlun and her husband, David, of Palm Desert, California, and Rae Lynn Snidal of Calgary, Alberta, Canada; his 19 grandchildren; and his 20 great-grandchildren.
*All obituaries are submitted by family and friends of the deceased.
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