Kemmie was a native Houstonian born and raised in the east end of Houston on the 9th of April 1922 to John and Jimmie Lee Wheeler. She was among the first class to graduate from the newly built Stephen F. Austin High School. Kemmie married Paul N. “Red” Adair on the 3rd of December 1939, and together they had two children, James Paul and Robyn Lucille Adair.
During World War II, Kemmie sang as a member of The Adair Sisters on the radio in Houston, and as The Trio on military bases and in military hospitals around Texas. During her lifetime, Kemmie was a devoted wife, mother, grandmother, and great grandmother, a loyal and supportive friend, mentor and confidant, an avid and able fisherman, and one-half of a very successful firefighting team with her famous husband, Red Adair.
Kemmie and her husband supported many charitable organizations especially those helping her children. Among them were the Leukemia Society of America, the Easter Seal Society, the Muscular Dystrophy Association, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, Texas EquuSearch, the Special Olympics, and the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. She was also a long supporter of the ministry of Billy Graham and of Franklin Graham’s Samaritan’s Purse.
Kemmie was preceded in death by her mother, father, and three siblings, her husband of 64 years, the late Red Adair, her two children, the late Jimmy and Robyn, and her grandson, the late James Derek Adair. She is survived by her grandchildren, Sunny Leigh Dickson and Paul Wayne Hinson; great grandchildren, Derek Scott Adair, Emma Morgan Abel, and Kemily Adair Dickson; nieces, nephews, and many, many friends.
Friends are cordially invited to a visitation with the family from five o’clock in the afternoon until seven o’clock in the evening on Tuesday, the 13th of April, in the Parlor of Geo. H. Lewis & Sons, 1010 Bering Drive in Houston.
The funeral service is to be conducted at ten o’clock in the morning on Wednesday, the 14th of April, in the Jasek Chapel of Geo. H. Lewis & Sons.
The entombment will follow, via an escorted cortege, in the Abbey Mausoleum at Forest Park Lawndale Cemetery in Houston.
In lieu of customary remembrances, contributions in memory of Mrs. Adair may be directed to the Bellville General Hospital Auxiliary, 44 N. Cummings, Bellville, TX, 77418; Bellville United Methodist Church, P. O. Box 188, Bellville, TX, 77418; Hospice Brazos Valley, 302 East Blue Bell Ro., Brenham, TX, 77833; the American Red Cross National Disaster Relief Fund, P. O. Box 397, Houston, TX, 77001; or to the Depelchin Children’s Center, 4950 Memorial Dr., Houston, TX, 77007.
Do not weep for me, for I am cradled in the arms of God. I walk with the angels, and hear the music beyond the stars. Joe Fazio
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