Michael Ray McLelland

Michael Ray McLelland, a beloved longtime resident and businessman of Groesbeck, passed away on Sunday, June 14, 2026, at age 73. 

His funeral services will be held on Saturday August 15, 2026, at 10:00 a.m. at First Baptist Church, Groesbeck.

Mike was the son of the late David and JoEleene McLelland.  He is survived by his wife of 51 years Dixie McLelland, his son Lee McLelland, his daughter Leslie Lane, his daughter Laura McLelland, and his 7 grandchildren, Michael McLelland, Gabriel McLelland, Levi Lane, Daniel Lane, Abigail Lane, Sarah Cotto, Hannah Cotto, his sister Donna Samuel, his brother Joel McLelland, and a few cute little dogs, who all loved him and miss him very much.

Mike was born and raised in the Fort Worth area, graduated from Everman High School in the 1970s, graduated from UT Arlington, served as a Medic in the US Air Force Reserve, and lived in Fort Worth until the 1980’s, until he moved to Groesbeck where he lived out the rest of his life. He was born in Fort Worth, but spent his weekends and summers in Groesbeck with friends and family on the old family land from a very early age, always considered Groesbeck his true home, and always looked forward to the day he could move here permanently.

Mike worked in Banking in Fort Worth until the mid 80's, where he enjoyed a lot of success as one of the youngest VPs at one of the largest banks in DFW, and specialized in all things computer and computer network related, and enjoyed a lot of experiences like helping lead the team that installed the first ATM machine in Texas that actually knew how much money was in your bank account.

Mike moved his family to Groesbeck in the 1980’s where he ran several successful companies, including a computer company through which he built many custom computers for the local schools and hospitals and city and county offices and networked their computer systems back before the days of the modern internet. And he owned and operated the Groesbeck office of Realty Plus where he loved serving peoples real estate needs and took true pride in placing his clients and customers needs first in everything he did for almost 40 years until his retirement in the 2020's.

Mike loved people, and loved serving his clients and customers and community, and actively served his community through multiple civil service organizations as a member and officer and director in the Lions Club, and the Chamber of Commerce, and served in local politics in the City of Groesbeck Economic Development Corporation, and the Groesbeck City Council, and as the Mayor of the City of Groesbeck, where he managed to see Groesbeck make its way out of debt with good budgeting and no property tax increases eventually receiving the Citizen Of the Year award in recognition of his many years of service to the community and the people he loved.

Mike loved the open road and the great outdoors, long road trips with friends and family, taking his time for the most scenic route to his next destination, touring the lake or the country side looking for new for sale by owners, riding motorcycles with friends, checking cows and shredding pastures and hauling hay, and often with a few cute little dogs along for the ride.

Mike loved living life and enjoying the people in his life. He was a daredevil on a dirt bike or 4 wheeler, always down for a good roller coaster ride, always over the top with family fireworks, always down for a good living room wrestling match with the kids, always a good sport when called on to help with things like the Fiddle Festival, always quick to load up a car full of kids and drive the drag on a Friday or Saturday night, always cracking jokes like knowing how those rock formations occurred because he took geometry, and always making surprise trips to the grocery store for a big box of Super Golden Crisp cereal or gallon of Blue Bell or something fun for the family.

Mike was often seen most every day at one of the local cafe’s having his morning and afternoon coffee, where he enjoyed long conversations about real estate market changes, and local land and cattle prices, and local and national politics, and listening to old stories and old local history, and just to have a good time with the old timers he enjoyed who met there every day to enjoy each others company.

Mike was often seen on the side of the road, helping someone with a flat or a tow, or calling for a ride, or looking for directions, or just visiting with some out of towners out sight seeing that he stopped to check on and ended up striking up a conversation with about local real estate or local history, because he never met a stranger he was not willing to enjoy helping.

Mike loved his weekly time with his Bible study church family at the Creation Evidence Museum folks in Glenrose Texas, and his Bible study church family at Lake Limestone with Bob & Celeste Coffee and Dale & Liz McDaniel and all their friends, and lived for that fellowship together every week, always saying he believed meeting like that was what true church was all about for him.