Friends and family come together in sadness at the passing of Sam W. Rankin of Hideaway, Texas. A beloved husband, father, grandfather, friend, and mentor, Mr. Rankin died peacefully on September 15, 2026, surrounded by his loved ones.

Sam was born in Gladewater, Texas, on May 24, 1938, and spent his youth in his family's home there before enlisting in the Army Reserves. Gladewater made him what he was. It was East Texas oil country in those years, a place where a man's word was his collateral and where he learned early that opportunity favors the person willing to work while everyone else is still talking about it.

Driven by an entrepreneurial spirit that never left him, Mr. Rankin co-founded several oil-related businesses, including PAR and VeRan, both oil derrick service companies, each founded alongside his lifelong business partner, Rodney Verette. Theirs was a partnership measured in decades — the kind that outlasts the deals that make it.

He went on to become co-owner of Evangeline Downs in Lafayette, Louisiana, and held interests in banks and savings and loans, including Gladewater National Bank in his hometown — a point of quiet pride, having a hand in the bank of the town that raised him. In the early 1990s, he co-founded United Lift Systems, Inc., a mast-jacking system for large-scale heavy lifting.

Mr. Rankin retired from active business in the mid-1990s, though “retired” was never quite the right word for him. He simply turned his considerable energy toward his family, working as tirelessly for them as he ever had for any venture, and taking on the care of his numerous aunts with a devotion that asked for no recognition and received a great deal of it anyway.

In 2001, he came out of retirement to help build an automotive software startup. He did it the way he did most things — giving fully of himself and rarely asking for much in return. That last effort set his only son, Mark, on the same path of entrepreneurship his father had walked, which may have been the point all along.

A lifelong golfer, some say he made more money on the golf course than in any business meeting. His friends will have to weigh in on that. What is not in dispute is that he was better company over eighteen holes than most people are anywhere.

He is survived by his wife, Ginger Rankin; his son, Mark Rankin, and Mark's wife, Jana Rankin; his grandchildren, Gage Rankin, Rachel McKenzie and her husband, Blake McKenzie, Lane Simmons, and Tera Brandt and her husband, Jacob Brandt; and four amazing great-grandchildren, Oliver Brandt, Jude Brandt, Henry Brandt, and Waylon McKenzie.

He leaves behind a family he built with the same care he brought to everything else, and a great many people who are better off for having known him.

Visitation will be held on Monday, September 21, 2026, from 5:00-7:00 p.m. at Croley Funeral Home in Gladewater. Graveside services will take place at Gladewater Memorial Park on Tuesday, September 22, 2026, at 10:00 a.m.