5936095515.jpg &&& ARLINGT0N — Joe Horace Terrell’s life sounds like a country and western song:". . . But he never complained."The 91-year-old Arlington man, who died Wednesday, was a former hired hand and carpenter whose father died when he was 8, forcing him to shuttle back and forth between his brothers’ homes in the years before the Great Depression. ". . . But he never complained."He was basically illiterate because his vagabond life during his teens made it hard for him to get an education. His eyesight started to fail when he was in his 30s, and he had to give up being a carpenter. ". . . But he never complained."And when he and his wife, Sara, got married 69 years ago, they briefly lived in a tent.". . . But he never complained."But throughout what his family called his life of hard knocks, Mr. Terrell worked hard to support his wife and son, David Joe. No matter how hard it may have been, Mr. Terrell never swore. "Dad was not an educated man. He was not able to teach me the three 'Rs,’ " his son said. "But what I realized through the years is that he taught me three 'Rs’ that are more important: Do the Right thing; Respect: and take Responsibility for your actions."Mr. Terrell was born Jan. 11, 1917, in the East Texas town of Chandler. He had 14 brothers and sisters and seven stepbrothers. When his father died in 1925, Mr. Terrell eventually was "shopped" around to live with one brother and then another. He worked at sawmills and as a hired hand on farms and ranches, his family said.In 1938, while staying with a brother near Comanche, Mr. Terrell met his future wife at a dance. Sara sneaked away from home to attend the party because she was the daughter of a Southern Baptist deacon and dancing was considered a sin.For the couple, it was love at first sight. After a whirlwind romance, they soon were married. They briefly lived in a tent near Ranger, their son said. His new bride didn’t know how to cook, but Mr. Terrell didn’t complain."Nobody said it would last, but it did," Sara Terrell said.The next year, as the country was mired in the Great Depression, the couple began to move back and forth from Texas to California, where Mr. Terrell worked as a carpenter on the California Aqueduct. "He would go out and get a job and then ask how much it paid," David Joe Terrell of Houston said. "If it paid 25 cents an hour, he was happy to get it."By the time they moved to Arlington in the mid-1950s, Mr. Terrell’s eyesight had become so poor that he was no longer able to work as a carpenter. He eventually landed a job at the Arlington school district, where he worked for 27 years as a janitor, most of that time at Arlington High School.When his eyesight continued to get worse, he rode the handicapped bus to work, and his wife picked him up when his shift ended.David Joe Terrell, who earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees, said he could not be prouder of his father."He was a janitor at the high school, and I was proud of him because of what he taught me," his son said. "He did it with dignity and was glad to have a job."". . . He never complained." Survivors include his son’s wife, Michele, and numerous nieces and nephews. Services Visitation: 6 to 8 p.m. today at Arlington Funeral Home