Edrie Earle Parsons

Edrie Earle Parsons, 101, of Center, Texas, passed away on January 26, 2025, surrounded by loved ones in Center, Texas. She was born on October 19, 1923, in Bertram Texas (the Hill Country), to the late Herbert Hall and Zula (Stewart) Hunt.

Being raised on a farm in the Hill Country during the Great Depression resulted in Edrie being a very strong-willed and hard working lady. She told many stories about the hardships she and her family endured during those years. She told of picking cotton and how the schools would close so all the kids in the community could help their folks with the “crop,” how she was raised churning butter from the cows she had to milk, how they did their homework by candlelight as they had no electricity, how they traveled in a horse or mule drawn buggy and only when she was a teen did her family get a “car.” For entertainment, many in the community would gather and they would have a fiddle player and a guitar player, a juice harp, maybe a banjo and a wash tub bass player and they would all sing and sometimes even dance. They had no phones and little transportation, so dating was difficult. She said every Saturday night she would clean up and put on a dress made from feed sacks and hope a boy would come by wanting to take her out. She said she always went with the first boy who came by as she had no way of knowing if another would come later. She met her first husband, Leroy Parsons, at a community baseball game when she was 16 and within months they were married and moved to Austin.

Leroy was drafted into the Navy during WWII, and she answered a call for help by going to Houston and working as a welder making parts for airplanes since most of the males were off fighting the war. After the war, she and Leroy settled in Houston and had three children. She attended the University of Houston while working as a grocery checker at a local grocery store and earned an accounting certificate. She worked as an accountant for many years. She and Leroy were married approximately 26 years when he was killed in a motor vehicle accident. Several years later, she married Buddy Johnson and they remained married for over 30 years before his passing. For the last 17 years of her working life before she retired, she was the comptroller at All State Erectors, a multimillion dollar construction corporation, located in the south part of Houston.

Her daughter Lynda relates that her friends all called Edrie either “Mom” or Ms. “P” and in later life, here in Shelby County, most of Lynda’s friends called her Mom or mother. She also had a nickname of Sapphire that her husband Buddy tagged her with so many called her Sapphire. She loved telling stories about her life and loved discussing politics even more so. She loved reading and read her Bible regularly until she lost her eyesight. She also loved plants, flowers and being outside, fishing or just sitting under a tree “talking to God.” For the last 14 years of her life, Edrie lived with her daughter Lynda K Russell here in Center, Texas. Up until the last few weeks of her life when her health began to fail, she brightened the mood when anyone was in the room with her. Her smile was contagious and she always had everyone laughing before they left. She will be deeply missed by those who knew and loved her.

She is survived by:
Daughters:
Sharon Spicer, and husband, Jim
Lynda K. Russell, and husband, Jay White

Grandchildren:
Susie Montgomery, and husband, Mark
Gina Drewett, and husband, Eddie

Numerous great grandchildren and great-great grandchildren and nieces and nephews.

A host of family and friends.

Special friends:
Montie Jones
Ronnie Borders
Janice Pugh
Julie Martin
Sara Martinez

Edrie is preceded in death by her husband Leroy Parsons and her husband Buddy Johnson; her parents Herbert Hall and Zula Hunt, son LeMoyne Parsons, brother Harold Hunt, and sister Mildred Fisher.