ARTHUR BOONE

Photo courtesy of Austin American-Statesman

Arthur Upshaw Boone, who went from distributing frozen orange juice from a cooler in his '46 Plymouth to owning one of the Southwest's largest frozen food companies, died Monday October 7th, 2008, after a series of illnesses.

Boone, the founder of the Austin Steam Train Association and the financial force behind early efforts to refurbish the group's 1916 locomotive and begin Hill Country tourist excursions, was 87.

Railroading became Boone's passion in his later years. Even before the steam train group formed in 1989, Boone had bought and restored a Southern Railway two-bedroom business car. He and his wife, Mary, traveled throughout the United States in the car, which they would pay Amtrak to attach to a scheduled train and leave on a siding when they came to a place worth exploring. "It was like a traveling hotel," said Boone's oldest son, Bill. "I went on a bunch of trips with him and it was a ball. Now, you can't be in a hurry ... " Bill Boone, who joined his father in running Frostex Foods Inc. before they sold it to Kraft Foods Inc. in 1987, described his father as "one of the kindest guys I've ever met. If he's not in heaven right this minute, we're all in trouble."

Boone was born in Owensboro, Ky., in 1921 to a Baptist preacher and his wife. Boone's father told him he could go to any college he wanted ? any Baptist college ? so Boone came to Texas to attend Baylor. He played football and, after an injury, took responsibility of the bear that served as the team mascot. And he met Mary Cunningham, marrying her in June 1944.

After graduation, he joined the U.S. Navy, was commissioned as an officer and served on the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga during World War II.

He returned to Texas in 1946. He told his son Bill later that he surveyed the business landscape and decided that at least three businesses were ready to take off: frozen foods, aviation and air conditioning. He opened an Austin branch office of Glazier Co., a frozen foods distributor, often taking orders over the phone, filling them and then delivering them in his car. He bought the branch in the early 1950s.

Bill Boone said his father's seemingly dormant passion for trains was ignited when he toured his friend Doctor Henry Renfert's private rail car at Renfert's ranch near Niederwald. He found and bought his own such car, naming it the Boonesborough (Daniel Boone is thought to have been an ancestor). He became president of the American Association of Private Railroad Car Owners, "not a particularly huge honor," his son said with a laugh, "because there were only 30 people in the country who had one."

After the City of Austin bought Southern Pacific's Llano-to-Giddings line in 1986, Boone was among those who suggested that the old steam train on display at Brush Square downtown could be restored and run on the line. "There were several people talking about it; Arthur was willing to put his money up," said lawyer Bill Bingham, a steam train association board member. "Then Arthur found the original (passenger) cars and bought them on his own, and leased them to us. I think it was for a dollar a year." Steam train association chairman Ben Sargent, the American-Statesman's editorial cartoonist, described Boone as "a terrific guy. Courtly was probably the term that comes to mind. He was very intelligent, very intense, but he always treated people with a great deal of respect."

Boone is survived by his wife of 64 years, sons Bill and Jim, four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. His daughter Mary Carol died in August. Services will be at 2 p.m. Thursday (October 9th) at Hyde Park Baptist Church.

[The preceeding article was adapted from an obituary published in the Austin American-Statesman on October 8th, 2008.]

Arthur Boone was the owner of private car BOONESBOROUGH (800026), built by Pullman in 1929 as Southern Railway office car 4. Arthur brought BOONESBOROUGH to the AAPRCO convention in 1982, 1984, 1986, 1987 and 1992. He served as President of AAPRCO from autumn of 1985 thru autumn 1987.