Jack Blanton Mathews

For health reasons, the family requests that all those attending wear masks to the service.

Jack Blanton Mathews, longtime partner and then president of Mize Department Store in Nacogdoches, died Thursday, July 29, 2021, after a long illness.

He was 90.

Graveside services will be at 10 a.m. Thursday, Aug. 5, 2021, at Liberty Hill Cemetery, 30 TX-147, San Augustine, TX, with Robert Carter, chaplain at Hospice of East Texas, presiding. 

Jack worked at Mize, the downtown institution, for 45 years, 14 of those as president. He was a partner with B.H Mize and L.D. Pate, who became president when Mr. Mize died. Mr. Mathews took charge following Mr. Pate’s retirement.

“We were very good friends,” Jack once told the Nacogdoches Daily Sentinel of Mr. Mize and Mr. Pate. “We were like family but we got along better. We had a wonderful partnership. They were my two best friends.”

Jack always said he loved the opportunity to serve the Nacogdoches area by providing a great shopping experience in the middle of town, in the years before American retail started moving toward malls and finally online shopping. He worked hard on store development, keeping up with styles through regular market trips to Dallas. He organized local style shows and especially loved holidays at the store, with his longtime friend Floyd Dobbs showing up as a jovial Santa. Jack really tried to understand what the people in his town needed and wanted from the store.

Jack finally retired from Mize and sold his stock in the store in 2002, Mize’s 77th year as a locally owned business. The store, unable to continue competing against changing shopping trends, announced its closing in January 2007. The Mize sign remains lit every night on the side of the building, a reminder of its long history.

He was heavily involved with local organizations. He was a leader at First United Methodist Church, across from Mize, and served as the Nacogdoches Bicentennial chairman in 1976. He was a member of local Rotary and Shriners organizations. In 2014, Jack was honored for his 50 years of membership in Shriners International.

Jack was born in San Augustine, Texas, on October 25, 1930, to Henry Jackson Mathews and Orean Blanton Mathews. He graduated from Kemper Military School in Boonville, Mo., and, in 1950, the University of Texas in Austin. He served in the Army during the Korean War.

He married Minta Rhea Perry of Navasota in 1957, and they had two daughters, Ann and Jane. In 1997 he married Carolyn Cammack and they adopted a daughter, Twila Carter.

Jack was a quintessential downtown businessman, always promoting his store and the central business district, Nacogdoches and the great state of Texas. He was a proud Republican even when it was still a Democratic state (though he admitted he voted for Ann Richards for governor but didn’t want Minta to know). He loved gardening and travel and all Southern foods, especially boiled shrimp and beer. He continued going to Butcher Boy’s for a mouth-watering burger as long as he could.

He is survived by two daughters: Ann Mathews Horn and son-in-law Richard and granddaughter Abby Horn, all of Bremerton, WA., and Twila Carter and her sons, Justin and Travis, of Houston. His daughter Jane died on July 14, 2021, in Omaha, Neb.

The family wishes to thank the staff at Rock Haven Nursing & Rehabilitation Center, and Tonya Box and Bill Guidry for all their help. They especially appreciate the kindness and loving care provided by Jack’s sitters Veronica Wade, Ajoya Jimerson, Lisa Garner, J’Cie Little, Misty Green Benjamin and Paula Horton.

In lieu of flowers, please make donations to First United Methodist Church of Nacogdoches or to a favorite Nacogdoches charity of your choosing..