Willene Fambrough, age 98 of Breckenridge, passed away on Monday, November 13, 2017. Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m., Saturday, November 18, at Necessity Baptist Church with Rev. Charles West and J.C. Burt officiating. Interment will follow in Necessity Cemetery under the direction of Morehart Mortuary. Visitation will be held from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m., Friday, November 17, at Morehart Mortuary.
Elcy Willene Fambrough passed from this life and went home to Glory and the presence of Jesus on Monday November 13, 2017. She was born in the Union Hill community southeast of Breckenridge on November 29, 1918.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Douglas Fambrough, her parents, S.A. Sullivan and Janie Gray Sullivan, two sisters, Juanita Sullivan Bryant and Nell Sullivan Langford, and one brother, Tommy Scott Sullivan.
She is survived by one daughter, Dixie Kirchmeier of Rowlett, Texas; and two sons, Stephen Fambrough and wife Jan of Grandview, Texas and John Fambrough and wife Betty of the Wayland Valley. She enjoyed being with her six grandchildren, 12 great-grandchildren, and numerous nieces and nephews.
She graduated from Breckenridge High School in 1936 and then completed a year of post high school work in various business courses. After high school she worked for Dr. Wood a long time physician in Breckenridge and then for C.V. Welch a Breckenridge oil producer and businessman. She was a very talented piano player having started lessons when she was eight. She was well known as a pianist and was frequently called on to play at old time singings, weddings, and funerals.
On July 19, 1940, she married the love of her life Douglas, and the two of them remained in Stephens County until the fall of 1945, when they moved to Wickett where Douglas took a job with the Gulf Oil Corporation. During their 36 years in Wickett, she devoted her time to rearing their children, being an active member of the First Baptist Church, where she was the pianist. She loved playing the piano and could play most of the old time hymns in the Baptist Hymnal from memory. After all of her children were in school, she took the position of managing the Gensler Elementary School cafeteria in Wickett and maintained that position until all of the children had completed college. She loved the family’s camping trips to New Mexico and Colorado and their day trips to the Davis Mountains.
After moving back to Stephens County, she and Douglas busied themselves with establishing a new home in the Wayland Valley and getting reacquainted with old relatives and friends from earlier years. She and Douglas made trips to various parts of the United States, Great Britain, Italy, Greece, Germany, and Turkey. She remained the gracious, kind lady she had always been as she battled Alzheimer’s disease the past 15 years. We lost her to that disease many years ago, but her transition to a better life brings relief to her and closure for those who loved her. Her positive impact on her family and the countless others she touched will not soon be forgotten.
Memorials may be made to the Alzheimer’s Association or Meals on Wheels and may be left at Morehart Mortuary. Condolences may be made online at www.morehartmortuary.net.
