OBITUARY

Services Held for John T. Vandergriff, Pioneer Carrollton Businessman

Funeral services for John Thomas Vandergriff, 86, of 1431 South Broadway, Carrollton, long time Carrollton businessman, school board president and Chevrolet dealer, were held at 10 a.m. Monday in the Rhoton, Weiland-Merritt Funeral Home. Burial was in Forest Lawn Cemetery.
Mr. Vandergriff, who died Friday, was a native of Arkansas and came to Texas shortly before the turn of the century.
After working as a blacksmith in  Plano and Farmers Branch, he opened a blacksmith shop in Carrollton in 1902. In 1912 Mr. Vandergriff began doing repair work on automobiles and entered the auto business full-time in 1920.
In 1926 he obtained a Chevrolet dealership in Carrollton an in succeeding years opened dealerships in Irving, Grand Prairie and Arlington. He turned the operation of the business over to his oldest son, W. T. Vandergriff of Arlington in 1942.
It was in 1902 that Mr. Vandergriff first opened the doors of his blacksmith shop in Carrollton. While a very young man at the time, he had come to Texas at an early age from his native Arkansas, little did he realize that the firm he began would remain today as the oldest established business in Northwest Dallas County still operating under its original name.
Vandergriff attended to the transportation needs in one form or another, of more than one generation. For many years in his blacksmith shop, he shoed the horses or worked on the wagons and buggies of the people of his area. He had the distinction of building the first ice wagon for this section of the county.
In spite of a very limited system of roads at the time, Vandergriff was among the first to see the potential of the automobile. He closed the blacksmith shop and started repairing cars, gaining a Chevrolet dealership in Carrollton.
Mr. Vandergriff not only contributed to the economic strength of his section but, in addition, he was active in the civic life of his community.
Although he was almost completely self-educated, having very little formal schooling, Vandergriff became the long-time president of the board of education in the Carrollton Independent School District.
A great story teller with a keen sense of humor, Vandergriff would delight in telling of how "one who didn't finish the second reader in  school tried to boss those educated teachers."
Under his leadership, however, the school district enjoyed much progress, two new school buildings, an elementary and a high school, being constructed while he was board president. Last year he was honored as one of the all-time leaders in the city's history.
Survivors are wife, Mrs. Lona Vandergriff; three sons, W. T. (Hooker) Vandergriff, Arlington; Gordon T. (Smokey) Vandergriff, Irving; A. Z. (Jack) Vandergriff, Dallas; two daughters, Mrs. Dorothy O'Dell, Grapevine; and Mrs. Debbie Collins, Austin; two half-brothers, Organ Baker of Hot Springs Ark.; and Alpha Hager of Santa Anna. Calif.; eight grandchildren, including Mayor T. Vandergriff of Arlington and 14 great-grandchildren. Pallbearers were P. H. Brown, J. D. Lawler, John Haynie, H. J. Silver, C. H. Nesmith, and Jack Blanton.

Carrollton Chronicle - Jan 7, 1965; Vol. 61
Dallas Morning News - Jan 3, 1965 pg 13 [ View full clipping ]
Submitted by Edward Lynn Williams