Lucile Smith Rowntree Brief Biography and Obituary

Lucile Smith Rowntree

1912-2008

Annie Lucile Smith was born on a ranch on Rocky Creek near Oakalla in Burnett County, about twenty miles from Lampasas in Central Texas. She died peacefully on Sunday, March 9, 2008, at her home in Grand Prairie surrounded by those who loved her. She often said she was “the luckiest woman in the world” to have had the life that she had.

She was the daughter of Edgar “E.Babe” Smith and Leila Mae Wykes. Lucile was one of three children. She had an older brother, E. Babe, Jr. and a younger sister, Dorothy Virginia Lewis. Lucile read before she was five so her parents allowed her to start school early. She rode to school with her brother, behind him on his horse.

The Smith family lived at the ranch until their house burned in 1918. They, then, moved to Lampasas, and Lucile attended school there, graduating from Lampasas High School in 1928. The summer she graduated Lucile met John Thomas Rowntree, who had just come to Lampasas to accept the position of high school coach. John, the son of Robert Rowntree and Mary Lucille Schrock, was from Bartlett, Texas. Reportedly, John soon told Lucile over a cherry coke, “You are the prettiest girl I have ever met, and I’m going to marry you.”

None the less, after her graduation, Lucile left Lampasas to attend Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, but she did return home to marry John in 1930.

In the next fifteen years, Lucile and John had seven children, Mary Kuhn, Martha Lucile, Rebecca Alice, John Thomas, Jr., David Terry, Ruth, and Paul Anthony. The family lived in Greenville, San Angelo, and Canadian, as well as Lampasas, before moving to Grand Prairie, Texas, in 1956.

In addition to raising her children and supporting her husband in his career as a teacher, principal, and assistant superintendent, Lucile finished her college degree at West Texas State College in 1957. She then began her twenty years as a language-arts teacher at Lee Middle School in Grand Prairie. She retired in 1976.

Lucile was a life-long member of the United Methodist Church, and she lived her faith. She was involved in many local organizations, the Grand Prairie Woman’s Club, 3 G’s, Rejevian Book Club, Grand Prairie Retired Teachers, and others. Reading remained one of her mainstays, as was keeping personal journals. She painted in oils as a hobby. She especially appreciated birds and all of nature. Helping others, unassumingly, was a way of life for her. An avid democrat, she also followed social and political issues closely, often writing congressional representatives to express concerns and requests for changes, most often in behalf of those who have little voice.

Lucile was preceded in death by her husband John.

Lucile was always available to her own large family, treating all as if each were the most loved.

She is survived by her children and their spouses: Mary Kuhn and husband Robert Rogers, Martha and husband David Brownlie, Rebecca Moore, Grand Prairie, TX, Ruth Hatcher and husband Charles Hendryx, Honolulu, Hawaii, John T. Rowntree and wife Mary Schleppegrell, Dexter, Michigan, David Rowntree and wife Sheila, Concord, California, Paul Rowntree and wife Beverly , Colleyville, TX.

All of Lucile’s family, her seven children, sixteen grandchildren, and nineteen great grandchildren, as well as the mates of the grandchildren and other relatives and friends, celebrate the life of love and service that she led.

In lieu of flowers, please send memorial contributions to the Methodist Children’s Home at 1111 Herring Avenue, Waco, TX 76708.

The family deeply appreciates the kind and able assistance of Care Mountain Caregivers, Jennifer, Melaine, Tonja, Lorena, and Claudia and Rick Putchio and the wise counsel of Dr. Chuck Dell, all of whom enabled them to keep Lucile in her own home during her declining years.

A memorial service will be held at 10 A.M. on Friday, March 14, at the Baker Chapel of the First Methodist Church of Grand Prairie. Burial will be on Saturday, March 15, at the Smith Family Cemetery near Lampasas in Oakalla, Texas, on the land on which she was born.