Maurine Banks Hill

Few people have gotten to enjoy as successful a life as Amy Maurine Neeley Banks Hill, who passed away peacefully September 3, 2011 at the age of 96 years. Maurine was successful both in the number of years she lived and in the quality of life she lived.

Visitation for Maurine will be from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Monday September 5, 2011 at Memorial Funeral Chapel in College Station. Funeral Service are scheduled for 10 a.m. Tuesday September 6, at First United Methodist Church in Bryan with Reverend Jeff Gage officiating. Interment will follow at the Bryan City Cemetery.

Maurine was talented, funny, kind, and friendly. She never met a stranger, and was always ready to laugh or play a song. She loved both of her husbands, all of her children and stepchildren, and all of their children, and they loved her dearly in return.

Maurine was a nurturant Christian woman who gave her love to everyone she thought needed it. She will be missed by her family and all of the people who were touched by her love and grace. She was preceded in death by her parents, her first husband, Dr. W. C. “Bill” Banks, her second husband, Dr. Joe Hill of Dallas, and her sister Ruth Neeley Lewis. She is survived by her sister Bonnie Mary Grinstead of Los Angeles, three children, Barbara M. Banks, of Denver, Colorado, Bonnie Jane Benson, Philip C. Banks, and daughter-in-law Martha Banks as well as four grandchildren, Barbara Erin Benson, Amy Anne Banks, Elizabeth Ann Banks, and Courtney Jane Banks and four step-children, Joseph Hill, Barbara Lanius, Pat Lindsay, Robert Hill, M.D., and Norwood Hill, M.D.

Amy Maurine Neeley was born in Anderson, Texas on July 27, 1915. Her parents, Edgar Neeley and Amy Barron, were frontier stock from Iola, Texas. Her father had been elected County Attorney of Grimes County, so they were living in Anderson where the county courthouse was located when Maurine was born. Her mother was the first female superintendent of county schools in the state of Texas.

Maurine grew up in Bryan, Texas. Maurine started playing the piano when she was 5 years old. She was a prodigy. By the time she was 7, she could play almost any tune by ear. This gift made her extremely popular with the ancient Confederate Civil War veterans when she would play at their reunions at the Carnegie Library in Bryan. She graduated from Stephen F. Austin High School in 1933. During the summer session of 1933 Maurine was one of the first women to study at Texas A&M University. Maurine was an exceptionally gifted musician and received a scholarship to study music in Oklahoma. She had to withdraw to help her widowed mother raise her two younger sisters, Ruth and Bonnie Mary.

Maurine continued to devote her life to music, and besides playing and teaching, she composed hundreds of songs with her sister Ruth who provided the lyrics. Maurine loved going to dances at Texas A&M during the Big Band era. She had many boyfriends and an active social calendar.

Maurine was always theatrically inclined and was the star of a local theatre group production. The stage manager was a tall, blonde, blue-eyed Yankee boy who had come to the South to become a veterinarian, W. C. “Bill” Banks. He was a quiet, proud man who went from being a high school dropout to being a distinguished professor of Veterinary Medicine at Texas A&M. He attributed his progress in life solely to his beloved Maurine.

They were married on September 6, 1939 and had 3 children, Barbara, Bonnie, and Philip. Besides rearing her children and caring for her invalid mother-in-law, Maurine gave private piano lessons in her home. While doing this, she found time to compose an operetta with her sister Ruth Lewis. This operetta, called “Brazos Valley,” was actually performed at Crockett Elementary School in the early 1960s.

Maurine and W.C. loved to play golf together almost every day. Maurine won a number of golf tournaments, shot a hole-in-one at Briarcrest Country Club, and played on St. Andrews in Scotland. W. C. Banks passed away on December 18, 1975. Maurine had nursed W. C., caring for him at home 24/7 for over seven months.

Upon W. C.’s death, Maurine decided she didn’t want to go back to giving piano lessons and was ready to start a new career. Maurine went back to school to become a licensed realtor and then had considerable success selling homes and real estate in Brazos County, Texas. Her charm and personality helped her become one of the top realtors in town. Maurine loved the chance to drive newcomers around town, showing them the sights. During this time, Maurine traveled extensively all over the world.

In 1990, Maurine married again to a prominent Dallas physician, Dr. Joe Hill. At the age of 75, Maurine uprooted herself from Bryan and started a new life in Dallas with Dr. Hill. She completely adapted to life in the big city, and driving herself and her new husband around Dallas. As always, she made good friends quickly and developed a deep love for her step-children and remained close to them after their father’s death and her return from Dallas to Brazos County.

Shortly after she came back to Bryan, Maurine was permanently immobilized by a bad fall. For the next six years, Maurine’s courage and love of life enabled her to adapt to her disability and enjoy her life to the fullest. After a false start at a nursing home, Maurine went back to her home at 510 College View where she was the only patient and received help from her round-the-clock caregivers. Maurine loved keeping up with national and world events through television. She learned how to use a computer, and played bridge on it almost every day.

Maurine never engaged in self-pity over her condition, and always had a positive outlook on the future. Her caregivers came to love her almost as much as Maurine’s children as they became the recipients of her affection. The morning she went to the hospital the last time, she ate a great breakfast, played on the computer, and took a nap.

Maurine was a founding member and past president of the St. Joseph’s Hospital auxiliary, as well as the Bryan Woman’s Club and belonged to the Neighborly Class of First United Methodist Church in Bryan. The family would like to thank Hospice for taking care of Maurine in her final hours, and especially thank Suzan Yvaguirre, Patricia Martinez, Erica Martinez, Diane Hutchson, and Sandra Smith, her beloved caregivers. In lieu of flowers, the family would ask that any donations be made to Hospice of Brazos Valley and the Brazos Valley Music Teacher’s Association.