William Theodore (W. T.) Block, Jr. was born in Port Neches, Texas, on July 29, 1920, the son of W. T. "Will" Block, Sr. and Sarah Jane Sweeney. He was in the anti-aircraft artillery corps of the U. S. Army early during World War II, and he met his first wife, Maria Elisabeth Kothe, in Germany shortly after the end of the war. They settled in Nederland, Texas, in 1947, where Block became assistant postmaster until 1972, when he transferred to be postmaster at Orange, Texas. He retired from there in 1973 and took over as director of the campus post office at Lamar University where he remained for the next ten years. He retired a second time in 1983. Block earned his master's degree in history from Lamar University and authored a number of books, including Sour Lake, Texas: From Mud Baths to Millionaires; Cotton Bales, Keelboats, and Sternwheelers: A History of Sabine River and Trinity River Cotton Trades; and Early Sawmill Towns of the Louisiana-Texas Borderlands. After losing his first wife in 1992, Mr. Block remarried in 1996 to Helga Woods, and he continues to be active in researching and writing about the history of Texas and Louisiana.
From the description of W. T. Block, Jr. papers, 1998-2005. (McNeese State University). WorldCat record id: 60695113
