TEXARKANA MAGAZINE
Five generations of the Langdon family gather to celebrate Dorothy “Tutu” Langdon’s 100th birthday.
Reese’s experience in the Navy and his job in Houston had given him just the right background to run this type of business. “Reginald helped us purchase the welding supply store. He said he didn’t want anything to do with running it and that we could just pay him back later. I was actually scared to move to Texarkana because all I knew about it was the Phantom Killer, who had been in the news a few years before. But I quickly discovered that it was a really nice place to live,” she said. That business was eventually renamed Langdon Oxygen Company, and they expanded to include five locations. “Once Claudia was in school,” Tutu said, “I would drop her off, drive down to Langdon [Oxygen] to help with some of the filing, and then pick Gary and her up when the school day ended. Reese worked hard to grow the business and provide for our family.” My grandad’s focus at work also allowed my grandmother to be fully present for her kids. She helped with the youth choir at First Baptist Church, served as a room mom, and was a den mother for Scouts. “If I could go back to any time, it would be when my kids were little,” she said. “I remember riding horses with Gary. He has always loved horses, and Claudia loved dance.” Langdon Oxygen continued to be the family business, later employing Gary, son-in-law Pete Snow, and eventually grandson Todd Langdon. In October 1990, heartbreak shook the family when Reese died unexpectedly in a car accident. “I remember holding your hand at the funeral,” my grandmother said to me, something I also remember very clearly. She never remarried. No one could compete with the love she has for my grandad.
For years after my grandad passed away, my grandmother continued traveling to their favorite destination, Hawaii. “The first time we went to Hawaii, Reese didn’t really want to go because of what he remembered from Pearl Harbor, but he knew that I had always wanted to visit,” she said. “While we were there, we met a very sweet local family. When we got back home, I asked [my grandson] Justin if he knew what the Hawaiian kids called their grandmothers and told him they call them ‘Tutu.’ He was about two or three and just chuckled, pointed at me, and said, ‘You Tutu,’ and I’ve been Tutu ever since.” Hawaii has continued to hold a very special place in my grandmother’s heart. Her sister Mildred served as a missionary there in the 80s. After she passed, my grandmother traveled to Hawaii to scatter her ashes as she had requested. My grandmother also served the local church there each year when she visited. She would attend the Hawaiian Baptist Association Convention and serve at the Hawaiian Baptist Academy. Dorothy Langdon lived through the Great Depression and World War II; she didn’t have a phone in her house as a child, but now she carries one in her purse. A lot has changed in the last 100 years, but her love for family has stayed the same, and the lessons she’s learned are universal. She tells others that “going to church every Sunday, surrounding [herself] with people she loves, and always telling the truth” has been the source of her long, full life. As she celebrated her 100th birthday on January 3, I was able to witness how many lives she has touched as years’ worth of family and friends came to wish her a happy birthday.
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SENIOR LIVING 2026
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