Sam & Faye Curry

Samuel Eric Curry came to Plainview in 1919 to visit his sister and stayed the rest of his life. He worked at the First National Bank and eventually started selling insurance after hours. In 1923, when he married Faye Bell Marlin in her parents’ home in East Mound Community, Hale County, he quit the bank and set up his own business, Mutual Life Insurance. He also became a pioneer land leasing agent representing major oil and gas companies. In 1928 he sold his life insurance company and became a developer, building 34 houses in Plainview before the 1929 stock market crash brought that enterprise to a halt. He then opened a real estate office, sold insurance again, and became a farm manager as well, running up to 75 local farms for landowners who lived elsewhere.
Sam Curry was active in public affairs. During World War II he was on the Hale County War Price and Rationing Board. He served on the local school board from 1944 to 1951 and was its president in 1945. He was a charter member of the Plainview Real Estate Association, formed in 1944. He was a longtime member of the First Baptist Church, director of the Plainview Rotary Club, and president and board member of the Plainview Cemetery Association. He also raised funds for the Salvation Army.

Faye Belle Marlin was born December 7, 1900 in Quanah (Hardeman County) and moved with her family to Hale County in 1906. After her marriage to Sam in 1923 she moved to Plainview with him and, once their two children began school, became active in the P.T.A., served as its treasurer, and sang in its choral group. She was a member, pianist, and Sunday School teacher (for 37 years) at the First Baptist Church. She was a charter member of the Plainview Women’s Club and was on the local opera and symphony guilds, a member of P.E.O., and director of the High Plains Historical-Genealogical Society. She was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Daughters of the Republic of Texas, Daughters of American Colonists, and other such associations.

Faye Curry, an artist, had local shows of her paintings a number of times over the years, including 1969, 1971, 1976, and 1982. She was active in early Plainview flower shows, and she and her daughter had a noted hat collection that they donated to the Llano Estacado Museum. She was long active in the Plains Art Association and received its Grumbacher Golden Palette Award. She was also honored with citations for distinguished service from the Texas Historical Commission and Llano Estacado Museum.