Lillie Marie Shaffer

Lillie was born Sept. 11, 1917 in Needville, TX to Carl Hansel Norman Parker and Lydia (Weeke) Parker. She married Theodore Louis Shaffer December 12, 1933, who died January 11, 1978. She had 8 brothers and 2 sisters, all deceased. She has three children, a son, Theodore Louis Shaffer of DeSoto, TX, daughter, Lillie Marie Allman of Jones Creek, TX, & son, Carl William Shaffer of Colorado Springs, Co.

She is survived by four grandsons, seven granddaughters and numerous great grandchildren and great great-grandchildren.

She also remembered:

In 1919, we were living in Needville, Texas. I was born there on September 11, 1917. My brother, Hansel Hardy, was born there on March 29, 1919, but only lived until July 9, 1919. My recollection of this place was of a long table with benches in the kitchen.

Shortly thereafter we moved to Avoca, Texas, where my brother, Carl Homer (Jack) was born on May 18, 1920. We didn't live there too long, for we next moved to Hawley, Texas, where Henry Weeke was born on April 17, 1922. I remember our house to be made with outside batted walls and no insulation or paneling on the inside walls. When sandstorms came, Daddy would move our beds together and stretch a wagon sheet over them to keep us from being covered with the sand that blew through the ill-fitting bats. It seemed like we would have grit on our dishes for several days following a storm. I remember the sand drifting up around the fence until you could only see the tops of the posts.

We used to play in the shade of Lilac bushes. Toys were few in those times, so using the ingenuity of youth, Herman and I would catch grasshoppers, snitch Momma's thread, hitch them like horses to match boxes and watch our 'make believe' horses pull the play wagons around. In 1923, Jack and I found a plum tree and ate some green plums and both came up sick. I felt sick but Jack was so sick that Daddy had to go get Dr. Fatheree. The Dr. had Momma cook a chicken in a fruit jar with no water and feed him the un-diluted broth. She had to cook it in a large kettle of boiling water.

Speaking of gourmet foods, while Jack was still recovering, Herman went to open the gate and found a bull snake wrapped around the gate post. Daddy went out to kill it, and Jack was so hungry by this time that he asked if they were going to eat it.

After the crops were in, daddy made arrangements with Grandma and Grandpa Weeke to move to Rosenberg, Texas and farm their 136-acre farm. This was 1923 and I was 6 years old, Herman was nine, Jack was three and Henry was just over one-year-old.

We loaded what we could into two covered wagons and began the trek from Hawley to Rosenberg, a trip of about 400 miles. The trip was made longer by the fences we had to go around and the streams we had to cross. We had a cow that made the trip with us so we had fresh milk with our meals. Momma made biscuits every morning and cornbread every night. She baked them in a Dutch oven over an open fire and they were so good, as all outdoor cooking seems to be. For our noon meal, we didn't stop to cook, so we would spread some flavored lard on our left-over biscuits and eat that.

One of the horses, Old Charlie, was a bit cranky, and at times, Daddy would have to stay up and walk him some nights. When we reached Temple, Texas, we found the river up and had to stay for a week in the wagon yard until it went down enough to ford it. We arrived in Rosenberg just before Christmas. The trip had taken 30 days, and this was with Momma carrying our soon to be brother, Wilbur Thurston.

On Christmas day, it was so cold that Daddy put us kids in the wagon between two feather mattresses to keep us warm while he took us to Grandma's for a Christmas party at the church.

In the spring, we went to Grandma's house. She had a garden on the left side of the house and there was a gate at the back of the garden. Herman and I went through the gate to the Brewer girl's house. Their parents owned the Dr. Pepper bottling plant, and it was here that I had my first soft drink.

- Lillie Parker Shaffer

In 2017, she was living in her home in Pearland, TX, when Hurricane Harvey caused her house to flood. She was moved to DeSoto, TX to live with her son, Theodore and daughter-in-law, Carolyn, and lived there until her death.

A visitation for Lillie will be held Wednesday, December 7, 2022 from 5:00 PM to 8:00 PM at Forest Park Lawndale Funeral Home. A funeral service will occur Thursday, December 8, 2022 at 10:00 AM at Mt Olive Lutheran Church, 10310 Scarsdale Blvd, Houston, TX 77089. A committal service will follow the service, Thursday, December 8, 2022 at 12:00 PM at Forest Park Lawndale Cemetery.