JULY 15, 1949 – APRIL 2, 2024
Ronny Tribble lived the life a kid might dream of—he was a firefighter, policeman, ambulance driver, rancher, and spent years in the Air Force stationed in Europe.
Born in Paris, Texas, on July 15, 1949, the second of three children of the late Lonnie and Elaine Tribble of Tigertown, Texas, he was known as “Nicky” during his youth due to his father’s peculiar habit of calling folks by their middle name (later, one of his own sons suffered the same fate). Never a huge fan of school, he attended old West Lamar, where he excelled as an athlete, especially on the basketball court. It was there that he first developed the deadly accuracy he would use later in life to consistently frustrate his boys during endless games of H-O-R-S-E in the family driveway.
After graduation, he joined the Air Force, completed basic training at Lackland AFB in San Antonio, and then served in Germany as a member of the Air Police. It was there where, helping break up a bar fight in a bordering French town, he lost most of the hearing in his left ear, and long cold nights on patrol pushed him to start smoking to keep warm. Later he would call the habit, “the only thing I would have done differently.”
Back in the States, he briefly “attended” Paris Junior College, where he proudly claimed to have “majored in cards and dominoes at the student union.” But around that time, he also found a partner who would help him build a life. Ronny met Pamela Anne Grimes during a youth retreat at Maxey Baptist Church in July 1971, and the next day, he asked her out. “Well, I kinda wanted to marry her when I first saw her. She was just very attractive and nice. She was all together.” Well, it took a bit longer, but six months later, they were married.
The couple moved from Lamar County to Southeast Texas, and Nicky grew to be Ronny, a devoted husband, father of three boys, and dogged provider for his family. He supplemented his day jobs with side gigs. A natural salesman who would more likely give you the shirt off his back, he sold water filters and firewood and later started RNT Sports, where he sold sports cards and memorabilia first out of the back of a neighborhood convenience store and later as a stand-alone shop. During his time as an ambulance driver, he helped deliver 13 babies, and once, while a volunteer firefighter, barely survived when the roof of a local building collapsed around him while he battled a blaze.
He wore cowboy boots with his suits. Much to the chagrin of his wife, he collected hats by the dozens and baseball cards by the case. He retired twice: from the Lamar County Sheriff’s Department after 18 years of service, but before that from the county tax assessor’s office in Jasper, Texas, when he and Pam decided to return to his beloved Tigertown to be closer to family, raise cattle, and watch their sons grow into men.
Family was everything to Ronny. He was always available for an afternoon game of catch, or shooting hoops, or convincing you to help him with one of his side gigs. Homework? Not
so much. But he coached little league, church-league basketball, and attended almost every concert, game, or event his boys participated in. In recent years he mostly enjoyed watching old westerns, calling his boys on the phone, and fishing or playing dominoes with his five grandchildren. “I just enjoy seeing everyone happy and loving each other because family is all there is.”
Ronny Tribble lived a life without regret. “That’s not what it’s all about. It’s what you do with what you’ve got,” he said recently. He was a big man, with a big heart who did more with what he had than anyone we know. He is survived by his wife of 51 years, his three sons, Michael (Sarah), Kyle (Renae), and Josh, five grandchildren, Gavin, Gabe, Eliza, Aiden, and Logan, and a lifetime of friends who are all better off because they knew him. We all are.
Ronny died quietly on Tuesday in the comfort of his home in Tigertown. He was 74.
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Visitation will be at 11 a.m. and services will follow at noon on Saturday, April 6, 2024, at Bright-Holland Funeral Home, 2601 Lamar Avenue, in Paris. Interment immediately after at Tigertown Cemetery, Fm 38 North, Sumner, Texas 75486.
