OBITUARY

Rites today for clothier C. E. Mayes
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The Dallas Morning News-April 17, 2001
Author: Holly Warren, Staff Writer

C. E. "Count" Mayes, a Dallas men's clothier for more than 40 years, died Thursday at Medical City Dallas Hospital from complications of pneumonia.

Services for Mr. Mayes, 96, will be at 2 p.m. Tuesday at Sparkman/Hillcrest Funeral Home Chapel, 7405 W. Northwest Highway in Dallas.

Clyde Edward Mayes was born July 23, 1904, in Lewisville and moved to Trinity Mills when he was 13. He graduated from Carrollton High School in 1922. He attended three schools on football scholarships, including Southern Methodist University.

While at SMU, he was a starting lineman for the Mustangs on the 1926 Southwest Conference Championship team. His grandson, Robert Mayes, said he was the last surviving member of the team.

Mr. Mayes left college in 1927 to work as a salesman in a men's clothing store in Galveston. He returned in 1930 to Dreyfuss and Son, a prominent men's clothier that Mr. Mayes had been a student representative for at SMU.

Thirteen years later, he helped form Irby-Thompson, which became Irby-Mayes Man Store. He became the sole owner in 1969 after Collis Irby died. The main location was on the first floor of the Mercantile Bank building, with two other stores in the Park Cities.

Robert Mayes said movie stars, well-known athletes and Dallas business leaders flocked to the stores for the ornately embroidered wool Western wear that became popular in the 1940s and 1950s.

The nickname "Count" was given to Mr. Mayes at SMU, where he washed dishes for extra money. He was anointed the "Count of greasy pots and pans."

Mr. Mayes sold his business in 1987, a few years before his wife, Pauline Mills Mayes, a former department store model, died in 1995. He served as president for Regional Merchants Retail Association in 1965. He also was a member of First United Methodist Church in Dallas for 65 years.

Mr. Mayes is also survived by a daughter, Lounelle Mayes Draper of Signal Mountain, Tenn.; sisters Merle Mayes Isom, Christine Wallace and Regina Mayes Stephens, all of Dallas, and Cora Mayes Cerniak of Garland; brothers Edgar D. Mayes of Duncanville, Frederick W. "Ted" Mayes of Lewisville and Jack H. Mayes of Midlothian; six grandchildren; and 16 great-grandchildren.

Memorials may be made to the American Lung Association, the American Heart Association or First United Methodist Church.

Submitted by Edward Lynn Williams

Sparkman Hillcrest Memorial Park, Dallas, Dallas County, Texas