Retired Cameron County Judge Murray remembered for legacy of community service
Apr. 12—Retired Cameron County Judge Menton Murray Jr. left behind a legacy of community service and doing what was right for those before his court, family and friends said Thursday as the family received condolences.
Murray died Monday at DHR Hospice in Edinburg.
His retirement in 2005 from the 103rd state District Court in Brownsville marked the first time since 1947 that someone named Menton Murray was not on the ballot in Cameron County, his wife Lori Betancourt Murray and others said.
Murray's father Menton Murray Sr. served as a state representative from Cameron County from 1948-1974.
After graduating from undergraduate and law school at The University of Texas at Austin in 1966 and attaining the second-highest score in his class on the State Bar Exam, Menton Murray Jr. practiced law for a time in Austin and later in Harlingen.
He ran for state representative wanting to follow in his father's footsteps, but luckily lost the election before finding his true calling as a judge.
"We would have been married 60 years this September," Lori Murray said.
"We Lived in Austin a couple of years. He just simply loved being around the University of Texas and all the activities," she said.
Memorabilia from his time at UT and playing on the Harlingen High School football team were displayed prominently at the reception. Murray lettered in football, basketball and baseball at Harlingen High School.
Everything changed for the Murrays when the Cameron County Bar elected him temporary judge of Cameron County Court-at-Law No. 1 after they moved to Harlingen.
"He just fell in love with the job. That's what he wanted to do. It suited his talents very well and he said, 'I'm gonna run the next time a judgeship opens up.' Luckily, the Legislature created County Court-at-law No. 2 and that's the one he ran for and won," she said.
Later, Gov. Mark White appointed Murray to the 357th state District Court.
"He served, but lost that election and he practiced law in Brownsville until he ran for and won the 103rd. He was on the 103rd all the way up until retirement in 2005," Lori Murray said.
Their son, Menton Murray III (Trey), said his first memories of his father, and those of many young men like him in Harlingen, were as a dad and a coach.
"They moved to the Valley right after Hurricane Beulah. I was born in '72. Dad was so active in so many things, but so active in my life and that's probably the single thing that I'll remember the most is how involved he was in my life. He lived things with me to support me. I played football, ran track. ... He coached me for many, many years. So many kids in the community saw him not as the judge but as the dad and coach."
"He was always fair and people loved him for that," Trey Murray said.
"Over the last 25 years, people have pulled me aside. Most of these people were attorneys, but also people in the courtroom, to talk about dad and the difference he made in their lives, because of how he made his court available, the work ethic that he had."
"They knew they wouldn't always win in Judge Murray's court, but they knew they were going to get a fair shake. The integrity of that man is more than anybody I could ever imagine. He led his family in that regard," Murray said.
Menton Murray recalled a man whose custody case his father had decided.
"Dad had told me that 99 times out of 100 in a custody hearing, the custody will go to the mom, but in this case, this man reached out to me and he said, 'my ex-wife wasn't stable and wasn't good for our son and your dad made a decision that was against everything most judges do, and gave me custody of my son Jake. And he saved my son.'
"When you hear the impact that a judge has had when they make the decisions because they are right, not because this is how we've always done them, it's pretty special, and I think that type of thing summed up the man he was. He did things because they were the right things to do regardless of the consequences. He didn't mind telling you. He wasn't (politically correct.) He'd call it like it was. He'd speak straight to you, and we loved him for it. You always knew where he stood."
Mark Davidson, a judge from Houston, said he met Murray while coming down to the Valley on cases where all of the local judiciary had recused themselves.
"He retired when it was time. Menton knew when to say when," Davidson said.
He said he got to know Murray, and Judges Darrell Hester and Migdalia Lopez extremely well during those trips.
"I am smiling today because I am thinking of all the good times we had. The last time I saw him was Feb. 17. It was the weekend of the Los Fresnos Rodeo. I came down to take my son to the Los Fresnos Rodeo, and while I was here I stopped to have lunch with Menton."
Campaign signs were up and they joked about finding an old one where Murray was running for judge and lettering on "write in." Both quickly dismissed the idea, realizing that any such signs were far too old.
They had lunch at a restaurant across the street from Boggus Stadium.
"I used to play football over there. I remember my tackles, both of them," Davidson remembered the judge, who was known for his sense of humor, saying.
