Mary Alice Kimbrough

Mary Alice Kimbrough died Saturday, October 26, 2013. She was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1932 and grew up in Ypsilanti, Michigan. A 1950 graduate of Roosevelt High School in Ypsilanti, she attended the University of Michigan and graduated with a degree in French in 1954. As a Navy wife, she taught in elementary school in Gurnee, Illinois and Norfolk, Virginia. In 1958 she and her husband moved to Lincoln, Illinois where she taught in a junior college. She subsequently pursued graduate studies in French at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana, eventually receiving her Ph.D. in French. She and her family relocated to Houston in 1964, where she resided for 30 years. She joined the faculty of Texas Southern University in 1966 and taught there for 28 years. She served some time as head of the French department, eventually retiring as a full professor in 1994.

She is the author of two books, a biography of Louis-Antoine de Bougainville, and a translation of Francois Mauriac’s More Reflections from the Soul. On her numerous voyages to Europe she acquired considerable knowledge about European cathedrals.

Upon her retirement, she relocated to Rockport, Texas, living there for 16 years before deteriorating health compelled her to return to Houston in 2010 to be near her family. She is survived by her husband of 59 years, two children, three grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.