GLADEWATER MEMORIAL PARK - UPSHUR COUNTY


Services for Helen Ann Bice Foshee, 80, of Nacogdoches, Texas, will be held 10 a.m. Saturday, October 30, 2010, at Laird Funeral Home with Rev. Paul Sevar officiating. Interment will follow at 1:30 p.m. at Gladewater Memorial Park in Gladewater, Texas. 

Mrs. Foshee was born April 16, 1930, in Fort Worth, Texas, to the late John Lankford Bice and Blanche Hamm Bice. She passed away peacefully Wednesday, October 27, 2010, in Nacogdoches, Texas.

Helen's early schooling was in Maceio, Brazil, in a school built by her missionary parents. One of Helen's favorite early memories was sailing into New York Harbor, holding her father's hand, and seeing the Statue of Liberty while her family was on furlough from Brazil. She graduated in 1946 from the Baptist academy in San Marcos, Texas. She went on to study music at North Texas University. 

It was at the university that she met the love of her life, Robert "Bob" Phillips Foshee, and they were married November 20, 1949. She and Bob started their family and moved to the Nacogdoches/Garrison area, where they lived the remainder of their lives. Helen was a homemaker and lovingly tended to her husband, her children and her home. She was a member of Calvary Baptist Church and enjoyed playing the piano and singing for other area churches and her family. Helen and Bob were pine timber growers, along with other Foshee family members, and all were proud of the fact that they were good stewards of the land. Helen and Bob worked side by side in the oil and gas industry until they retired and were original business partners in Nacogdoches Trade Days. 

In 1975, she became interested in genealogy and spoke to many groups and wrote several articles to help others begin the exploration of their own ancestry. 

Helen loved to travel and could spend hours exploring places in the pages of her travel magazines. Over the years, she traveled to wonderful places in the United States and Mexico, went on cruises and was able to share some of those trips with her children, grandchildren and friends. For her 74th birthday, Helen returned to Brazil. She found the home in which she had lived in until the age of fifteen, when she moved back to America. She also was able to reunite with the woman who baby-sat for her, when she was a child. 
Helen lived a bucolic life or, as we should say "the ideal rural life." She loved fishing and rescued and nursed orphaned animals. She had a love for animals, even as a young child in Brazil, where she had exotic pets including a bat, several monkeys, a parrot, a sloth and a tortoise. 

In her final years, even after multiple strokes, Helen was blessed to be able to stay in her home, being cared for by a blessed group of friends who became extended family to her and her children. 

The family would like to extend their heartfelt gratitude and love for those who so patiently cared for her: Ruby Holt, Felicia Robertson, Thelma Peacock, Brenda Shepherd, Sherri Tindall and Katherine Bell. 

Helen is survived by three daughters, Marion McCoy and husband, Jim, of Dallas; Donna Campanello and husband, Lawrence, of Nacogdoches; and Virginia Foshee, of Wichita, Kansas; one son, Phillip Foshee and wife, Linda Pleasant Foshee, of Nacogdoches; twelve grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren; as well as other extended family and good friends. 

In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her husband, Bob Foshee; two brothers, John A. Bice and Robert Bice; and a grandson, Robert L. Foshee. 

Visitation with the family will be held from 4 until 6 p.m. Friday, October 29, 2010, at Laird Funeral Home. 

Pallbearers will be Matthew James McCoy, Mark Robert McCoy, Derrick Bice Foshee, Robert Russell Smith, Aaron Nicholas Boland and Lawrence J. Campanello Jr. 

In lieu of flowers memorial contributions can be made to the Genealogical Society of Nacogdoches, 1936 North St., Nacogdoches, Texas 75962 or Calvary Baptist Church Mission Fund, 3732 N.E. Stallings Drive, Nacogdoches, Texas 75965 or the International Mission Board, Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, 3806 Monument Ave., P.O. Box 6767, Richmond, Va. 23230-0767. Laird Funeral Home.

Published in The Daily Sentinel on October 29, 2010