Former Upshur County commissioner dies in wreck

A former Upshur County commissioner will be remembered for the love he had for his community and his family, friends and former colleagues said Monday.

"Tommy Stanley loved his grandkids like no man I've ever seen. He loved this whole county," Peggy LaGrone, former Upshur County Commissioners Court secretary, said through tears as she recalled Stanley's legacy to the county.

Stanley, 62, of Ore City died Monday morning when his motorcycle collided with a vehicle pulling onto the highway on which he was driving.

Stanley was driving a motorcycle north on U.S. 259 in Gregg County when a compact SUV entered the road from a private driveway.

The Tyler office of the Texas Department of Public Safety said the other driver, Monel Bass, 84, of Longview, was not hurt in the collision. An accident report indicated she was wearing her seat belt and did not require medical care, a dispatcher reading the report said. Authorities were called to the scene at 10 a.m.

Stanley was elected to the office of Pct. 2 commissioner in 1990 and served for three terms, until 2002. He was on the court when commissioners issued bonds to build the Upshur County Justice Center in Gilmer.

Bubba Pendarvis, who served as the Pct. 2 foreman under Stanley, said Stanley was committed to improving roads in his precinct during his tenure of office.

"He did a good job with the money he had in his budget," Pendarvis said. "He was a really good guy. I worked for him, and I knew him all my life. He did a good job as our commissioner. He helped in every way he could."

James Stoker, who served as a road employee under then-Pct. 1 Commissioner Gaddis Lindsey, said Stanley particularly helped improve Periwinkle Road in Pct. 2. The road connects Texas 155 to FM 1649, and improvements made during Stanley's tenure made emergency service access easier in rural areas of the precinct.

LaGrone said one thing she always appreciated about Stanley is that "you always knew where you stood with Tommy Stanley."

"He was a fair man. He was a hard man, but he was fair," LaGrone said. "He had the best roads in the county and some of the best people working for him."

The county voted in the Unit Road System in 2002 just as Stanley was leaving office.

Stanley said in December 2012 that when he first sought the office of county commissioner, his primary focus was the roads, describing roads as being from the 1950s and 1960s though it was, at the time, 1990.

"My crew and I worked hard to get roads up to better standards," Stanley said with pride in 2012. "When I left office in 2002, the Pct. 2 roads were in better shape than anywhere else in the county."

After leaving office, Stanley opened his own company doing dirt work.

He is survived by two sons and several grandchildren. His funeral services are pending with Grubbs-Loyd Funeral Home in Diana.