Gerald Sitton, 72, of Wellington, Texas, passed away Tuesday, May 21, 2024, at his home.
He was born on April 30, 1952, in Irving, Texas, to Gerald and Lola Sitton. He graduated from Denton High School and received his associate degree from Cooke County Community College. He married the love of his life, Mary Angenend Sitton, in November 1974.
Even as a teenager, Gerald loved skinning and mounting animals. Back in 1966, when he embarked on his taxidermy trade, schools didn’t exist, so he wrote to Northwestern School of Taxidermy for their books. Practically self-taught, the picture had a line with the instructions that said, “cut here.”
Gerald and Mary lived in Denton, Texas until 1993, when he transferred to Amarillo, Texas with Safeway’s Albertsons supermarket chain. He began his taxidermy career on the side while he worked 40 hours a week, first as a produce manager, then with the stocking crew, working four nights a week.
In 1994, Gerald pursued his taxidermy passion full-time when the couple opened their own business, Sportsman’s Taxidermy, in Amarillo. A lifetime hunter, Gerald guided New Mexico elk hunts and served as a guide for Quincy Weatherly in the Eastern Panhandle since the 1990s.
Wanting a slower pace, Gerald and Mary moved their taxidermy business to Highway 83 in Wellington in 2003. “At the time, we didn’t want to move this far from Amarillo, but now, we wouldn’t want to live anywhere else,” commented Gerald in his January 2018 retirement story for “The Red River Sun.”
On any given day during hunting season, Sportsman’s parking lot would be filled with hunting rigs from all over the country. Gerald and his customers would tell gun and hunting stories and discuss game management as the hunting in Collingsworth County has evolved into a big industry to supplement farming and ranching.
Gerald could not only give advice on how to manage wildlife but became known all over the nation for the life-like mounts he created. He claimed to have deer heads hanging all over Washington D.C. His experiences ranged from the worst, attempting to skin a 13-foot, 900-pound alligator in the back of a pickup with two-inch thick skin, to his favorite, a New Zealand Tahr, a beautiful animal with long, flowing hair from his neck about the size of a deer, for Durk Green.
Gerald retired from his 51-year taxidermy career, due to arthritis in his hands, as 2017 came to a close, but he and Mary continued to operate the hunting accessory and gun shop.
She died in November 2019. Gerald’s parents also preceded him in death.
He is survived by his daughter, Mendy Collier, of Denton; his grandson, Payton Collier, of Denton; his sister, Cathy Sitton, of Hurst, Texas; his brother, Jason Sitton, of Denton; and two sisters- in-law, Lyn Sanders and husband Danny, of Stinnett, Texas, and Joann Fleming, of Midland,Texas.
Cremation and arrangements were by Adams Funeral Home of Wellington. Sign the online guest book at adamsfuneralsvc.com.
