Cody Gupton

"Cowboy Cody Bill" Gupton made his final ride Wednesday, riding off into the sunset on what would have been his father's 95th birthday. Samuel Cody Gupton, a fifth generation West Columbian, passed away at the age of 62 on May 18, 2016, at his home at the Nash Ranch near Damon, Texas.

Cody fought a valiant two-year battle with cancer. He will always be remembered, not only for living his life the cowboy way, but for the "tough as leather" manner in which he battled the disease that eventually took his life. As a younger man Cody followed the rodeo circuit, riding bulls, bareback horses and saddle broncs. He later judged rodeos and delivered rodeo stock for Smokey Davis, worked for his parents at the Gupton's Feed Store in West Columbia and was a ranch hand for nearly 40 years at the Nash Ranch.

Born on October 30, 1953, in Bay City, Texas, Cody Gupton was the son of Rex and Verna Gupton. As a small child he lived in Buckeye, Buttermilk Bend and Markham, Texas, before his family settled down in West Columbia in 1962. He was the great-great-grandson of Henry and Maria Jansen of Denmark who made West Columbia their home in 1849. Cody loved to read and was a Texas History buff, spending countless hours researching his family's roots back through the generations.

Cody was a big sports fan and loved to tell stories of his glory days playing Little League and Babe Ruth League baseball and junior high and high school football in West Columbia. A 1972 graduate of Columbia High School, Cody Gupton lettered two seasons on the Roughnecks varsity football team as a quarterback for coach Jack Hays.

But his true love was the life of a rodeo cowboy. Cody achieved his greatest success in sports on the backs of dozens of bucking bulls and horses. And he made many lifelong friends from the years he spent following the rodeos. Cody could entertain for hours with his guitar, singing songs and telling stories of his exploits from his many years as a cowboy. And some of them were true!

The only thing Cody loved more than music and the cowboy life was his family. He will be greatly missed by his loving wife of 30 years, Andrea Boyes Gupton; their son, Rex Layne Gupton (and wife Megan Burton Gupton); his brother, Tracy Gupton (and wife Peggyjo Hall Gupton); his sister, Kelli Gupton Kuban; his mother-in-law, Patricia Jane Boyes; brothers-in-law, Stuart Boyes (and wife Susan Kay Boyes) and John Kenneth Boyes; sisters-in-law, Liza Boyes Parmely (and husband Michael Parmely) and Dara Boyes Roberts (and husband Walter David Roberts); and numerous nieces and nephews.

Cody Gupton was preceded in death by his parents, Rex and Verna Gupton, and his grandparents, Samuel Morris Gupton and Eula Meadows Gupton, and Leo Giesler and Pauline Ashenbramer Giesler, and his father-in-law, Ian Henry Purves Boyes.

Funeral services will be conducted at 10 a.m. Tuesday, May 24, 2016, at the Baker Funeral Home chapel in West Columbia with the Rev. Bill Shaw officiating. Visitation will be from 6 to 8 p.m. on Monday, May 23, at Baker Funeral Home. Burial will follow the funeral at Cedar Lawn Haven of Rest Cemetery in West Columbia.

Serving as active pallbearers will be Larkin Carter and Cody's nephews, Dustin Mosteit, Brian Gupton, Bret Gupton, Blake Gupton and Tommy Kuban.

Honorary pallbearers will be D. Wayne Beal, John Boyes, Stuart Boyes, Terry Burton, Larry Cole, John "Stormy" Gloor, Donnie Gorka, Lonnie Koenig, Dixie McGaughey, Tommy McGaughey, Tommy "Wink" Phillips, Chip Pugh, Kenny Shaw, Russell "Cowboy" Stanger and Doug White.

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