Norman "Kirk" Stuart

Kirk Stuart of East Texas passed away on November 13, 2025, in Tyler, Texas, on the morning of his seventy-fourth birthday.

In accordance with his wishes, a graveside-only service will be held. The service is scheduled for 11 a.m., Friday, November 21, 2025, at Kilgore Memorial Gardens on Highway 31 in Smith County.

A two-time honoree of the Bronze Star and recipient of several other distinguished honors, Kirk was offered interment at Arlington National Cemetery for his heroic service to a grateful nation. He declined this honor in favor of his mortal remains resting closer to family and loved ones. Multiple local military bases will send delegations and an honor guard to pay tribute to this American hero.

The service will be officiated by Pastor Josh Croswell, with arrangements under the direction of Cottle-Pearson Funeral Home in Overton, Texas. Pallbearers will be Matthew Prosser, Mark Prosser, Joshua Stuart, Randy Ruby, Carl Haats, and Chris Davis. Honorary pallbearers will be George Davis, Brian Jennings, Gary Parrish, Israel Prosser, Christopher Andrade, Dalton Cannon, Chase Porter, William Prosser, Roland Prosser, Carson Haats, Braxton Prosser, and Gabriel Stuart.

Born November 13, 1951, in Hobbs, New Mexico, Kirk lived a life shaped by courage, passion, strength, craftsmanship, devotion, and a rare warmth that could fill a room as surely as his laughter.

In his final act on this earth, Kirk donated organs and tissue to multiple recipients, saving the lives of at least three patients that very day, with additional donations that may ultimately help as many as seventy-five people. Even in his passing, he lived out the testimony of strength, love, and generosity that marked his entire life.

Kirk was a devoted family man who carried the dignity of work in his bones. He would do anything and everything to provide for those he loved. Over the decades, he worked as a diesel mechanic, carpenter, contractor, construction worker, auto-body specialist, and even a gourd farmer. He believed every job deserved excellence, and anything that bore his touch—a frame, a weld, a beam, a repair—became something meant to endure.

In retirement, he lived as a Disabled American Veteran, devoting himself almost entirely to his children and grandchildren. Even when illness or circumstance kept him from attending in person, his heart never missed a milestone. He stayed connected in every way he could and followed every achievement with fierce pride, bragging shamelessly about his grandchildren and wearing their triumphs like medals pinned to a uniform.

From 1969 to 1971, Kirk served with distinction in the Vietnam War as both a flight specialist and a helicopter mechanic for CH-47 Chinooks and UH-1H Huey helicopters in the renowned 1st Air Cavalry Division.  He flew on missions as part of an aircrew—one of the most dangerous billets of the war—and supported aircraft that served as lifelines to troops in the field.

For his service, he earned two Bronze Star Medals, the Army Commendation Medal, the Vietnam Service Medal, and the Aircrew Badge. These decorations reflect not only technical mastery but exceptional performance in combat conditions. He saw extensive action and carried the lifelong consequences of that service, including exposure to Agent Orange. Yet he never wavered in his pride for the uniform he wore.

In later years, Kirk often expressed profound gratitude to Rusk County Veterans Services Officer Leo Gonzalez, a fellow serviceman whose steadfast advocacy ensured that Kirk and Linda received every benefit to which they were entitled as a war veteran family of distinguished service. He also shared a profound bond with his adopted son, Randy Ruby, a veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. These men understood each other in the way only soldiers can, through the unspoken and enduring fellowship forged in the crucible of war.

Kirk’s lifelong faith was shaped early by the steady influence of his grandfather, Elbert Davis, whose quiet strength and devotion remained a guiding force throughout Kirk’s life. The legacy instilled by “Grandpa Davis” stayed with him through combat, hardship, love and loss, as well as the long trials of illness.

Though his path carried pain and seasons of doubt, his faith endured—resilient, hard-won, and deeply personal. It has become an inheritance that he now leaves to his children and grandchildren, a testament not of perfection but of perseverance and grace.

Kirk was a faithful member of First Baptist Church of Overton, always the first to join the livestream on mornings when his health kept him from attending in person. He cherished the preaching of Pastor Josh, the music of Noey and Jennifer Brown, and the fellowship he found within his church family. Worship, for him, was both anchor and refuge—a place where the lessons of his youth, the memories of his grandfather, and the joys of his later years came together in quiet gratitude.

A formidable athlete from his youth as an AAU baseball player and later a fearsome linebacker for his hometown Mount Pleasant High School Lions, Kirk played with passion and reckless abandon. In adulthood, he became known as one of the top power hitters in the Longview Parks & Recreation city softball league, anchoring the cleanup spot for Fleetwood (and later Haskins Trucking) as a slugging first baseman. He was also a bruising power forward on Fleetwood’s basketball team, playing with the same wholehearted intensity he brought to every part of his life.

Kirk loved to travel—to Colorado, New Mexico, South Texas, Florida—mountains or beaches, it never mattered. What mattered was the space to breathe, to reflect, to savor the world. He found joy in tending his garden and greenhouse, and peace in deer and elk hunting with rifle, compound bow, or recurve. A founding member of the Longview Bowhunting Club, he passed on a sportsman's respect for the land and for the animals he pursued.

Even when travel became difficult, the memories of those places remained bright within him. He could fix anything. He could coax life from soil. And when he stepped into a gathering, his unmistakable, thunderous laugh lifted the whole room.

In the late 1980s, Kirk used his VA benefits to purchase a tract of rich wooded land in rural Rusk County, between Longview and Tyler. With help from family and friends, he poured countless hours into carving a homestead out of dense Piney Woods wilderness. Today, that land (affectionately and tongue-in-cheek called “The Stuart Estate";) stands as one of his great masterpieces, a testament to his diligence, his hard work, and his desire to build something lasting for generations.

It is a place where his children, and their children after them (and their children), can always call home.

At six foot five, broad-shouldered and powerful, Kirk cut an imposing figure. Yet beneath that frame lived a gentle and deeply affectionate soul. His blue eyes could flash with mischief or soften with compassion.

Across decades of labor throughout East Texas, he became known as one of the hardest-working and most trustworthy men anyone could hire. Many of the homes, shops, and structures he worked on still stand as quiet monuments to his ability.

But his most extraordinary legacy was his warmth. He had a gift for turning strangers into friends and friends into kin. He could talk to anyone, laugh at himself, and embrace others without hesitation. To some, he was Captain. To others, Pops. Some called him uncle, second-father, brother, or mentor. To all who truly knew him, he was a blessing whose absence felt like a physical wound.

Kirk is survived by his wife and soulmate, Linda Prosser Stuart, his companion since 1978 and wife since 1984. He is survived by his children: Matthew (Candace Daniels) Prosser, Mark (Nikki Young) Prosser, Sarah (Carl Haats) Stuart, Mary (Ignacio Perez) Stuart, and Joshua (Mady Tate) Stuart.

He is also survived by his grandchildren: Gaelynn, Israel Kirk, Sophia, William, and Roland & " Red"; Prosser; Braxton James "B.P." Prosser; Dalton and Heidi Cannon, and Carson Haats; Christopher Andrade, Aubrey Valenzuela, and Addisyn Valenzuela; and Gabriel Kirk Stuart. Two grandchildren bear his name, a testament to the legacy of love he leaves behind.

Kirk is survived as well by his uncle George Davis of Kilgore, by George's children, Jerry, Christopher and his daughter Emily, Ginny and her son Chase, and their families, by his sisters Ivy Giroir and Ella Stuart Howard and brother Earnest Stuart, by his aunt Dorothy Berry of Queen City, and by his "adopted" sons Randy (Sonia) Ruby, Gary Parrish, and many other such adopted sons to whom Kirk expressed love and adoration. Beyond them are countless friends and extended family who felt his loyalty and affection, too many to list, but each remembered with love.

Preceded in death by many who shaped his life, Kirk now celebrates a blessed reunion with many dear ones, including his devoted grandparents, Elbert and Annie Marie Davis; his loving mother, Evelyn DeLois Davis Taulbee; his uncles, Billy Joe Davis, Otis Davis, and Martin Davis; and his wild, fun-loving aunt, Patricia Davis Taulbee, all now united in eternity with their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

We are thankful for the life-saving efforts of Lance Holleman, as well as the skilled nurses and doctors of The ICU unit of Mother Frances Hospital of Tyler, for providing excellent healthcare for our father before his passing.

The family requests no flowers. Instead, they ask all who knew him to keep him alive in their memories and stories—the truest monuments a man as great as our father could ever have.

Arrangements are under the direction of Cottle-Pearson Funeral Home, Overton, Texas.

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