Martha Faulk Stansbury

Martha Faulk Stansbury Martha Faulk Stansbury, 96, died Tuesday. She was the second of five children of Martha "Mattie" Miner, a former Hornsby Bend schoolteacher, and Henry Faulk, an Austin lawyer. Mrs. Stansbury taught for 40 years in the public schools of Texas. She is survived by a daughter, Anne C. McAfee, and her husband, Bill McAfee; five grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren, as well as by a sister, Texana Faulk Conn, and numerous nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her husband, Eddie Stansbury; her sister, Mary Faulk Koock; and by her two brothers, Hamilton and John Henry Faulk. A member of a pioneer Austin family, her great-great-grandparents, Jesse Tannehill and Jane Richardson Tannehill, came to Texas in 1828 and received a land grant from the Mexican government in 1832 in a wilderness area which would later become part of the city of Austin. Born in Austin August 12, 1908, she grew up in South Austin. She was a member of the debate team at Austin High and later was a member of the Versus Club, a women's intramural debate organization formed before women at UT were allowed to participate in interscholastic debate. She also worked on the Daily Texan staff before graduating at age 19. She began her teaching career in 1928 in the Central Texas town of Holland, where she taught English literature. She earned BA, BS and masters degrees from the University of Texas. In 1930 she married Robert W. Castleberry, then a UT law student. While their marriage lasted less than three years, her daughter Anne was born of this marriage. In 1934 she resumed her teaching career in Lockhart, where she taught English and Latin and coached debate. In 1936, the year Texas celebrated its centennial anniversary, schools all over the state were urged to put on special programs to commemorate Texas's 100-year anniversary. Lock hart's high school history teacher respectfully declined the job of putting together such a program. So it fell to the English teacher, Mrs. Castleberry, to produce a program for Lockhart's centennial celebration. She researched early Lockhart history and produced a script for a grand historical pageant. Virtually the entire student body of Lockhart from all grades was recruited for roles in the pageant. At her insistence, students from the segregated black schools also had roles in the drama. In the dramatic opening, students rode into the school's football stadium on horseback. At the grand finale, hundreds of students spoke with one resounding voice: "The wealth of Texas is in its SCHOOLS!” In 1937 she began teaching in South Austin's Fulmore School, where she taught for 10 years. She later taught at Austin High and University Junior High. In the early '50s she continued to teach, although she suffered health problems from unrecognized medical malpractice. In 1954 she moved to Houston where she taught until her retirement in 1972, when she retired back home to Austin. In 1957 she married Edwin L. Stansbury of Houston, a happy marriage until his death in 1971. She served as a Methodist Sunday School teacher or Sunday School superintendent for more than half a century. She had been a member of the Austin Retired Teachers, Sunset Valley Garden Club, the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, Business & Professional Women's Club, and Berkeley Methodist Church. Throughout her long career of struggling to raise a daughter on a teacher's salary, Stansbury regarded it as a challenge to live as frugally as possible and to save and invest - primarily in real estate. She was a charter subscriber to Consumer's Union in the 1930s, and she took pleasure in learning how to save money whether on small or major purchases. While she was frugal with herself, she was generous with her children and grandchildren, as well as her nieces and nephews. She often lent them money for a down payment on a home or to help launch a business. She invariably used the opportunity to pass on lessons in frugality to them. Her students, nieces and nephews, and her grandchildren remember her as a master storyteller. They remember especially the story of a bear known as Ol' Three Toes, as well as Hawthorne's story of The House of Seven Gables. She also is survived by five grandchildren and their spouses; Mark McAfee and Melanie Dietrich McAfee; Karen McAfee Deckard and Harry Deckard; McAfee O'Neill and John O'Neill, all of Austin; and Susan McAfee Raybuck and Perry Raybuck; Nancy McAfee Dyer and Allan Dyer, all of Wimberley. And she also is survived by 12 great-grandchildren: David and Sean Raybuck; Kaela and Garrett Dyer, all of Wimberley; as well as by Abigail, Amanda, and Emerson McAfee; Kevin and Jeffrey Deckard; and Adrienne, Kenny and Sarah O'Neill, all of Austin. Those who wish to do so may make a donation to the Women's Health & Family Planning Ass'n, P.O. Box 3868, Austin 78764 or to the Austin History Center Ass'n, P.O. Box 2287, Austin 78768-2287. Services will be held at Weed-Corley-Fish Funeral Home, 32nd and Lamar, at 11:00 a.m. Friday with burial at Oakwood Cemetery, just east of 16th and IH-35.