T.M. Moore, part 4: final chapter

Today would have been my grandfather’s (“Daw” as we called him, or “TM” to others) 99th birthday, so here’s the last of four posts about him. I’ve tried to do justice to Aunt Kathy’s work — as well as Daw’s propensity to save every scrap of paper which now fill boxes in my closet. I realize I have choices: I can toss it, ignore it, or try to digitize and share it. I’ve chosen the latter, so far. I guess I have a little (or a lot) of him in me.

The story picks up after he helped Dobson design the new A-frame shape that Whataburger restaurants used for years afterward; Dobson asked him to go to Odessa to build the first one in 1959. Business was slow at Moore’s Welding, so he agreed. While he lived in a rented room in Odessa for nine months, Billie (Mema) stayed home with 14-year-old Kathleen in Corpus Christi and ran the welding shop, although she visited Odessa on occasion. She wrote Kathleen in February 1961, “Daddy looks fine and is so very proud of his building it’s almost worth having him away from home. The building is pretty and very modernistic looking. That high sloping roof is orange and white striped.”

TM began to work exclusively for Whataburger, Inc. helping more orange-and-white striped triangles pop up (building new franchises) in the early 1960’s in Pensacola, Pasadena, Houston (Longpoint Road), and Abilene, to name a few.

Kathleen went off to the University of Texas in 1963 (my mom was already graduated and had my sister), and the Moores sold most of their welding business equipment. In fact, while Daw was out of town, Mema accidentally sold his father Elmer’s blacksmith anvil, a mishap which Daw lamented for the rest of his life.

TM was unhappy with his handshake arrangement with Dobson; he felt he had been promised more. He pushed the issue, and the businessman offered him a raise, which felt like a slight, so TM quit. At 51, he bought another welding machine and got a new welding certification card for his wallet from Humble Oil. For most of 1965 he worked for Olsen Engineering in Houston, earning half as much as he did working for Whataburger.

Good thing Dobson was forgiving, if not persistent. The two apparently needed each other, and in 1966 TM was back as Whataburger’s Construction Superintendent, though he still wasn’t happy.  In 1967, he wrote Billie in frustration over money. “I asked Mr. Garrison about the $500. Mr. Dobson the S.B. said no.”  His frustration was understandable; Kathy was still in college, Billie needed money to keep the house, and he was paying for his own out-of-town expenses. TM further wrote that George Garrison, Dobson’s accountant, told him not to go to Dobson anymore about finances and he would “help him make it up on the job.”

Shortly after this letter, on a fateful day in 1967, Dobson had flown with Victoria’s franchise-owner Luther Sneed from Victoria to Baytown and then to the airport near Pasadena, where they spent the day with TM visiting the new Pasadena Whataburger site.  They were leaving Pasadena to return home when the crash occurred.  The Corpus Christi Times reported that Harmon A. Dobson, 53, founder of Whataburger, and Luther John Sneed, operator of the Victoria, Texas, Whataburger franchise, died at 4:28 p.m. at the La Porte, Texas, Airport. Dobson, who had been a professional pilot in the 1940’s, was piloting his Cessna Skymaster, a private plane with propellers in both the front and the rear, when it made an unusual engine noise, nosed down, and crashed just after takeoff.

“The sense of loss was unbelievable.” Billie wrote. “This dynamic man had changed the lives of everyone with whom he came in contact, and we were all better off for having known him.”

Dobson’s will gave his wife, Grace, the choice of his assets. She chose the business. The Dobson Children’s Trust was established for the children, Thomas E. Dobson, Hugh Dobson, and Mary Lynne Dobson.

Consumed by grief, Grace frequently telephoned TM late at night crying in the months following Harmon’s death. Faced with mourning children, conflicting demands and advice, forced to make difficult financial and staffing decisions under great pressure, the woman who had worked with Harmon in the 8 X 10-foot building made by TM in 1950 turned to him for an understanding ear in 1967.

Grace named former CPA George Garrison as President. He aimed to grow the business rapidly, and made TM general construction superintendent based at headquarters so multiple stores could be under construction or remodeled at once. Garrison was “also a very dynamic man and never let the company slow down….[He] wanted TM to come back to the home office and work from there. … it was nice to settle down again,” Billie wrote. TM supervised as many as nine projects simultaneously, hiring general contractors and traveling from job to job to oversee the work.  He supervised the building of Whataburger stores in Houston, Bryan, Pasadena, among many others.

In 1969, TM purchased the Whataburger No. 75 franchise for $500. His first store, at 3319 Hansboro, in Dallas, opened in 1970. 

During the first two years of his franchise-ownership, TM continued working from his office in the company’s new headquarters in Corpus Christi, which was named the Dobson Building.

The Dallas restaurant’s gross receipts in 1970 were $166,589.57.  Net profit was $15,161.41.  His superintendent salary earned him another $21,514.

In 1971 the gross receipts of the Dallas Whataburger restaurant grew to $270,446 and net profit more than doubled, to $37,304. His superintendent wages were $20,718.  The Moore’s sold their home in Corpus Christi and moved into an apartment, readying to move to Dallas.

In 1972, TM resigned from Whataburger, Inc., took a lump sum distribution in his profit-sharing trust account, incorporated his business as Whataburger of Dallas, Inc. and opened a second A-frame store, No. 90.  From then on, his tax returns had the word “Executive” next to “wages,” and showed profits (“subfranchisee fees”) from his own company. He’d come a long way from washing dishes in Uncle Todd’s restaurant as a 7-year old.

During the 1970’s and 80’s, the Moore’s visited their grandchildren in Florida frequently (or flew them to Dallas), and enjoyed travels to places like London, Switzerland, the Caribbean, and Hawaii. 

TM was close to his daughters. He helped Linda purchase a home in Austin in 1982, when she found herself suddenly divorced with three school-age children still at home, and helped Kathleen raise Chris after she was divorced.

He always loved sports, and maintained an impressive golf score his entire life.  He won a Pro-Am tournament in Corpus Christi in 1953, and shot his age in 1991 (78 at 77).

He joined Brookhaven Country Club after moving to Dallas, taught grandson Chris to play at age 6 and provided him with golf clubs and equipment throughout his youth.  After he retired, TM often played with his three white-collar retiree golfing buddies: Don Fleming, John Harrison, and “Doc” Collinsworth, each of whom bought an annual senior’s membership card. However, he maintained his Brookhaven membership, hosting the retired fellows every now and then.

TM and Billie attended Dallas’s Park Cities Baptist Church for years, formally joining in 1984. TM’s Sunday School class was very important in his life. Especially after his retirement, it gave him an outlet for conversation and friendship with other men. He was also a lifelong Shriner and Master Mason (perhaps the subject of a future post).

In March 1999, he and Billie celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary.

In April 1999, three decades after purchasing his own franchise, four decades after building the first A-frame, and almost fifty years after meeting Harmon Dobson, TM was recognized along with four other “Whataburger pioneers” at the Whataburger Convention in Dallas, Texas.  There was a moving opening ceremony recognizing “the five pioneers,” the first to receive the Whataburger Legacy Award.

Daw passed away suddenly on June 12, 1999, a few weeks before his 85th birthday.

Happy birthday, Daw. Love, Valerie