REEVES, BLAIR

SAN ANTONIO – (AP) – Funeral arrangements are pending for retired 4th Court of Appeals Chief Justice Blair “Bruzzie” Reeves.

He died Tuesday [March 23, 1999] at age 74.

Reeves, an ex-Marine wounded in 1945 on Okinawa, was paralyzed from the waist down and used a wheelchair.

He recently had suffered from several medical problems, including respiratory and heart ailments, associates said.

A San Antonio native, Reeves had planned to be a coach until he was injured in the war.

Instead, he went to law school and entered politics. He was a justice of the peace, a Bexar County judge, a county court-at-law judge and an appellate judge.

While county judge, he was hailed for his courage in casting the decisive vote in 1967 that ensured funding for the hospital district that included the University of Texas Health Science Center.