Elaine Pruett Bowers

Elaine Pruett Bowers unexpectedly passed through the gates of Heaven on Sunday, January 6, 2019. Born on the first day of September 1942, Elaine used her time on earth to cultivate lifelong friendships, plan scavenger hunt birthday parties, sing in the choir, write funny poems, collect silly hats, shower her daughters with love and spoil her beloved grandchildren.

Elaine is reunited now with her parents, Claude J. and Vernita L. Pruett and her daughter, Lori Jean Bowers. Family left here to celebrate her memory are siblings, Claudia Buckalew and David and Bonnie Pruett, daughters and their husbands: Julie and Doc Monical, and Kathy and Chad Braun; her four granddaughters: Hannah and Hailey Braun and Bailey and Allie Battelle. Aunt Laine will be especially missed by her nieces and nephews, Stacy Buckalew, Austin and Shelby Buckalew, Sara and Adam Bresser, Jaime Pruett Molis, Jennifer Pruett LeCombe and Joseph Pruett.

The first of three children born to Claude J. and Vernita L. Pruett. In the early fifties, The Pruetts purchased a small motel on Main St. where the kids learned the lesson of a strong work ethic, along with maybe more than they should have about the frequent, sometimes nefarious, guests in and out of the motel. Elaine was a natural born storyteller, and her childhood years garnered many hours of hilarious tales, memories and laughs around the Thanksgiving table, where “motel stories” were a favorite pastime over pie and coffee.

At San Jacinto high school, Elaine was popular, beautiful and involved in all things fun. She excelled in school, becoming a leader in the Golden Gaucho Team where she blew a mean bugle and high stepped it on the field and in life. She kept her San Jacinto connections strong throughout her long life, several times steering the reunion committee, injecting every event with her special, silly, colorful style. It’s at San Jac where she earned her lifelong nickname, Hotlips.

Her years at Sam Houston and University of Texas further forged strong friendships and after marrying the boy next door (literally), Elaine set out on a path to build a family and a future with her husband. From the outset, the path proved challenging for the couple. In 1966 their first child, Lori Jean, was born with hydrocephalus. Although daunted, Elaine was nowhere near defeated and she defied the doctors, taking Lori home to live and raising her as if she was completely healthy. Lori’s short life was infused with amazing love, but the deep, enduring heartache of her loss dimmed Elaine’s bright light from that day forward.

Elaine’s life was forever changed at the altar of First Baptist Church Houston where she made a public proclamation of faith and was born again. This new life infused Elaine with energy, songs and yet another circle of lifelong friends. It was there Elaine overcame years of heartache from loss to find a new vitality and the world was made a better place for her faith. Even as a single mom with two teenage girls to manage, Elaine never shirked away from a volunteer call. She hosted housefuls of kids for Disciple Now, organized parties and reunions all with her signature stamp of fun decorations, rhyming invitations and giggling. She ingrained her strong faith into not only her children, but her family, bringing her sister and even her ex-husband to Christ with her stellar example. Her commitment to God is now a bedrock of faith that is a family legacy for generations to come and we are truly grateful.

As much as she loved getting together for ladies lunches, sitting out under pecan trees, singing in church and watching MASH, there was nothing Elaine loved more than her four grandchildren. She was famous to come running at the drop of a hat (a silly hat) for Grammy Duty. Hannah, Bailey, Hailey and Allie lit up Elaine’s world; they replaced the holes in her heart with an unmatched joy and even in her latest years, when fog sometimes blocked her understanding, those girls could get a laugh from Grammy.

There are so many things Elaine would have liked to have left behind for you. But there is only one thing that truly mattered to her and that was for you to find her vitality, joy and enduring peace through a relationship with Jesus Christ. She knew better than most, the pain of personal loss but found new life in the arms of the church. Her last wish is that you too will hear the small still voice and know the freedom of laying down your pain at the foot of the cross. Please find a bible centered church, go in and simply listen. You will be fulfilling her lifelong wish to see you again and have a good long talk over coffee in a heavenly café at a little table along the streets of gold.