Charles Thomas Fogarty, best known as Charlie, or "The Ole Redhead', was born on August 3, 1939 at St Joseph's Hospital in Houston, Texas to Lawrence and Lucille Fogarty. He grew up in Southside Place, enjoying sports, especially baseball and swimming. He looked up to his older brother Larry, and together they enjoyed raising and racing homing pigeons. He was proud of their mother's German family heritage, having settled in Bellville Texas, and where he enjoyed many family reunions over the years.

Charlie started building things when he was young- a wooden boat with a neighbor and then at Lamar High School, where he made lifelong friends, and continued developing his craftsman skills and was named "Mr. Woodshop", something that meant a lot to him. He graduated from Lamar H.S . in 1957 and married his high school sweetheart, Nancy Frost, in 1958. Together, Charlie and Nancy raised 4 children – Tommy, Jimmy, Marilee, and Sallye. Nancy and Charlie divorced, but remained friends.

Charlie was driven professionally – he was a big ideas man with a strong entrepreneurial drive. He created and invented the world's first do-it-yourself picture frame concept, U-Frame-It. He grew the business to 13 stores throughout Texas, eventually selling the business and starting a new concept called Frame It, which he had in all major malls in the Houston area. In 1983, he was named by Décor Magazine as one of the top 10 people in the world to influence the frame industry.

He was an ideas person, always looking around for opportunities, and writing down business ideas that popped into his head, as they often did, either on napkins at restaurants and seemingly hundreds of yellow legal pads at home and in his vehicle. One day, while driving down a backroad in Tomball, Charlie noticed a for sale sign outside a little country restaurant.  He entered the restaurant business with his son Jimmy, opening the doors of Goodson's Café's new location in Tomball Texas. One day, while Charlie was working at Goodson's, "a cute little blonde" as he called her, happened to come in for a meal. Charlie and Senie were married on October 5, 1996.

Jimmy eventually took over full ownership of Goodson's, and Charlie had already been thinking about his next venture. His love of Texas history and creative nature drove him to develop the Steamboat House, a steakhouse and tribute to the Republic of Texas, opening in 2005. The restaurant was also inspired by his desire to build a permanent home for two large paintings he had acquired of Sam Houston and George Washington, which today, along with many of his collected Texas artifacts, can be found at museums around Texas and at Sam Houston State University. Charlie would often dress as Sam Houston and talk to groups about Texas History, telling stories from Sam Houston's point of view. Due to his contributions to and passion for Texas history, he was knighted into The Sons of the Republic of Texas.

Charlie loved his family, including his wife Senie, 4 children, 6 grandchildren, stepchildren, great grandchildren, and many cousins, nieces, and nephews. He was a wonderful, fun and loving Pawpaw to his grandchildren, and because of his talent of speaking like Donald Duck, he earned the name "Papa Duck", which his great grandchildren affectionately called him. He also loved animals, including the many dogs, cats and horses he raised through the years.

Charlie never met a stranger. Other than his family, he loved nothing more than visiting with his many longtime friends and meeting new people, and as anyone who knew him would agree, he was one of this world's best storytellers. He had the most incredible memory and could recall dates, details of events, and people's names with the greatest of accuracy, and told each story with grand enthusiasm.

Charlie is preceded in death by his father Lawrence Edward Fogarty, his mother Lucille Machemehl Fogarty, his brother Lawerence "Larry" Edward Fogarty, Jr., stepson Brandon Christopher, and many dear aunts, uncles, and cousins. He is survived by his wife Senie Fogarty, son Tommy Fogarty, son Jimmy Fogarty and Jimmy's wife/Charlie's favorite daughter-in-law Cheryl, daughter Marilee Poon and her husband Andrew, daughter Sallye Norris and her husband Stuart, stepson Chris Stanley, grandchildren Sterling Fogarty, Brett Fogarty, Sam Norris, Clark Poon, Callie Norris, Elena Poon, and great grandchildren Lilly, JD, Elijah, Shaae, and Landon.

In Lieu of flowers, please make donations to the Alzheimer's Association in honor of Charlie Fogarty.