 Garms lived at the ranch until the 1950s, when the severe Texas drought forced him to sell the ranch and move into town in 1959, where he worked as foreman for a lime quarry operation, and eventually served on the school board for Glen Rose Independent School District.Garms was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in the 1980s, and died on December 16, 1984.In 2004, Garms was inducted into the Texas Baseball Hall of Fame.