Gaylard F. French

Gaylard Flynn French was born December 23, 1948, in Dallas, Texas to Margaret Wacile Eastwood and Eulie Newton French. He passed away December 21, 2024, in Waxahachie, Texas. He was preceded in death by his parents. In 1974 he married the former Mary Kathleen Dungan in Fort Worth, Texas. He is survived by his wife and daughter, Jessica Elizabeth French, of Waxahachie and son, Jackson Austin French, of Dallas. He was a member of the College Street Church of Christ.

He attended Waxahachie schools and graduated Waxahachie High School in 1967. While there, he was a member of the Waxahachie High Indian Band and Stage Band as a bass player and a First Sergeant. He lettered in baseball as a member of the Waxahachie High Baseball team and of the state tournament Waxahachie Basketball team in 1967. He also wrote for the sports page of the then school newspaper, The Beacon. 

After graduation, he attended Abilene Christian University majoring in education and graduating in 1971 with a BSEd. in social science. He was employed with the National Bank of Commerce in Dallas and Dallas Federal Savings before accepting a teaching position with Waxahachie High School in 1975 teaching primarily U.S. History, and Government, Economics, World History, and World Geography. While there, he was one of the sponsors of Junior Historians winning several honors in state competition, a board member of the National Honor Society, and sponsor of the annual One Act Play contest while teaching Theatre Productions.

He was active through the 1980s with the Waxahachie Community Theatre and played the lead role of Tevye in his favorite musical Fiddler on the Roof twice, and as Professor Harold Hill in The Music Man. He was chosen president of the board of the Community Theatre and was a founding board member of the Waxahachie Arts Council in 1981. He was an avid Trekker and Beatles fan. He appeared in two movies during that time: Tender Mercies with Robert Duvall and 1918 with Matthew Broderick, both filmed in and around Waxahachie.

In 1995, he received a Masters of Liberal Arts in history and humanities from Southern Methodist University in Dallas. He taught U.S. History at various times for Trinity Valley Community College in Athens, Navarro College Waxahachie, Hill College Johnson County, and Tarrant County College in Arlington. He retired from WISD in 2001. After retirement, he worked part time for the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth.

He had his faults, as we all do, but he loved his wife and children more than anything and did his best to be a good father and husband. And he loved his 1957 Chevrolet much like the one he had in high school. 

Teaching history was his profession, politics was his passion, and theatre was his hobby. Live long and prosper.

Visitation with the family will be held on Saturday, December 28, 2024, from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. with a funeral service following at 2 p.m. in the chapel of the Wayne Boze Funeral Home. Interment will follow in Midlothian Cemetery.