Vera Greenfield

Born in Silver City, New Mexico where her parents Estelle and Joe Smith both worked for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs at nearby Fort Bayard, Vera graduated in 1952 from Western High School where she was crowned senior prom queen and led the pep club. In December 1952 she married her high school sweetheart Ray Brancheau.

After Ray served in the U.S. Navy, the couple landed in Texas where Vera helped him complete an engineering degree from the University of Texas on the GI Bill. Together, they had four sons: Alan, Timothy, Michael and Joseph.

Ray soon got a job with the VA, which took Vera and the family back to Silver City for a brief time, then Fort Lyon, Colorado and Bonham, Texas. But shortly after arriving in Colorado, he was diagnosed with leukemia, the fate of many seamen who like Ray had been exposed to either asbestos, radioactive fallout from nuclear weapons testing, or both. He died in Bonham on November 20, 1965, leaving Vera to raise their four sons.

That sudden loss shaped the rest of her life. Vera moved to Temple, Texas where her parents had transferred with the VA, and her younger brother Wayne Smith had graduated high school. Even with support from Vera’s parents, she and the boys lived hand to mouth. When Wayne’s best friend David Greenfield graduated law school and returned to Temple to practice law, he asked her out.

Vera’s son Tim realized that David would become a fixture in their lives when he joined the family for dinners at home.

“She always accused me of falling in love with the kids, which I denied,” David said. “I fell in love with her and the kids.”

David and Vera married in June 1971 and built a house overlooking Lake Belton where they raised the boys. Their son Matthew, who the brothers nicknamed Babe, arrived in October 1972.

Like her mother, grandmother, father, and late husband, Vera went to work for the VA. A longtime medical administrator there, Vera often counseled patients and loved ones to take advantage of the benefits they earned serving their country. She knew firsthand the unforeseen health risks that military service could pose.

After a brief hiatus from the VA, she went back to work when her son Michael got into Columbia University. She continued to work so the family could travel to places like Spain, Italy, and France. She enjoyed being able to share her love of travel with her family and wanted to go as long as she was physically able.

But she never let go of a few frugal habits. On a recent trip to Rome with the children and grandchildren, she smuggled packages of dried beef to cook a family recipe. It helped that she was an amazing chef. She was also a talented seamstress who sewed many of the clothes she wore to work; a master gardener who surrounded their Belton home with flowers and fishponds; and the consummate hostess who made friends and relatives feel right at home

For many a Thanksgiving feast, tables stretched around the living room to accommodate dozens of guests. A diehard Democrat, she occasionally confronted her Republican children and grandchildren at these family gatherings. But she never let the confrontations escalate.

David said one of her primary tenets in life was to let her children and grandchildren “make their own mistakes, get her two cents in, hope for the best and see what happens.”

Whether they were getting up at dawn to do laps with the swim team, going to college in New York City, or bicycling from Austin to Anchorage like her granddaughter Lauren, she never wanted a fear of failure to stop them from experiencing life.

Her greatest source of joy was seeing that her sons became honorable men who imparted the right values on their children, David said.

Matthew called his mother a true patriot.

“She loved this country and everything it represented,” said Matthew who joined the U.S. Navy, as did his brother Alan. “She sacrificed everything she could and never really lost faith in it, which I definitely think, after losing her first husband because of the military, she could have. That always left an impression on me.”

She was also fiercely loyal to the Texas Longhorns. When she and David retired, they sold the home on Lake Belton and moved to a condominium with a view of the university that Ray, David and a number of children and grandchildren called their alma mater.

A private graveside service will be held at Austin Memorial Park. A memorial service will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, August 24, 2024, at Weed-Corley-Fish Chapels; 5416 Parkcrest Drive in Austin.

She is preceded in death by her first husband, her parents, and her brother Wayne.

Vera is survived by her husband David, her five sons Alan Brancheau, Tim Brancheau (Marcia), Michael Brancheau (Grace), Joseph Greenfield (Sheri) and Matthew Greenfield (Elizabeth); her seven grandchildren Kristen Sullivan (Paul), Charles Brancheau (Cassie), Austin Brancheau (Emily), Robert Brancheau, Gyles Greenfield (Brooke), Lauren Greenfield, and Natalie Greenfield, and eight great-grandchildren: Kaylee, Paige, Holland, Hazel, Caroline, Cecilia, Quinn and Cade.

Despite her health struggles in recent years, Vera always maintained her sense of humor and fighting spirit. Donations in her memory can be made to any charity.