Leah Hope Tucker

Leah Middlebrook Tucker passed gently into the presence of the Lord on Sunday, the 15th of January 2012. She was born on the 23rd of July 1914 to Dr. George Frederick Middlebrook and Leah Carter Middlebrook in Nacogdoches, Texas. She was the granddaughter of the late Thomas Anderson Middlebrook and Lou Ellen Warmack Middlebrook and the late Andrew Evington Carter and Mary Etta Childress Carter.

Leah Middlebrook graduated from Baylor University with a B.A. degree and an M.A. degree in English and later studied at the Sorbonne in Paris. While at Baylor she was an excellent student, active in campus affairs, and was selected as a Baylor Beauty in her senior year. She taught school for two years, then on November 20, 1937 she married Dr. J. Norris Tucker, whom she met while at Baylor. She subsequently moved with him to Houston where she stayed for the remainder of her life. She was a wonderfully supportive wife and later became the mother of two children: a son, J. Norris Tucker III, and a daughter, Dr. Leah Brooke Tucker.

She was a member of the Greatest Generation and exhibited all the noblest qualities of that age. As a young wife and mother, with a three-year-old child and another soon to be born, Leah bid farewell to her beloved Norris as he went to serve in World War II in the Italian Theater and in the Philippines. Upon his safe return in 1946, they resumed their roles of work and service.

As the years went by, Leah became actively involved in a number of educational, charitable, cultural and social organizations including the Blue Bird Circle, the Bayou Bend Docent Organization, and Pi Beta Phi sorority. She joined the River Oaks Blossom Club in 1943, serving as its president twice. She was president of the Guild at Houston Baptist University and later served two terms as a Trustee of Houston Baptist University. She was a member of the American Museum Society, River Oaks Country Club, and the Petroleum Club.

Over the course of approximately seventy-five years, Leah was an active member of two churches, River Oaks Baptist and Second Baptist. For decades she faithfully taught Sunday School, worked with the young people, led Bible studies, and in various ways supported the work of the church and the cause of Christ.

Leah will be remembered as a person of strength, dignity, character and wisdom. At the same time she was always warm and loving with a real zest for life. The great loves of her life were the Lord and His Word, her wonderful husband, and her two children. She lived to serve the Lord and to give succor and support to her family. She had a sense of honor that never failed and a deep commitment to the importance of duty.

She had a marvelously happy disposition that brought joy and encouragement to all who knew her. She was an extremely grateful person who never forgot to voice her gratitude for God's many blessings. She walked in gratitude, because that was the condition of her heart. She was a wonderful gift from God for 97½ years. For all of her family, "home" was always in our mother's eyes.

Leah was one of those rare individuals, so finely tuned that she was capable of great tenderness. She will be forever missed. The world is diminished by her death, but made richer because she lived.

“I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.”

- II Tim. 4:7

“....to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. “

- II Corin. 5:8

Leah was preceded in death by her husband of 55 years, Dr. J. Norris Tucker; and her son, Jay Norris Tucker III; her parents, Dr. and Mrs. George Frederick Middlebrook; her brother, George Frederick Middlebrook, Jr.; and her sister, Mrs. N.G. Bright. She is survived by her daughter, Dr. Leah Brooke Tucker, of Houston; and her sisters, Mrs. Stephen P. Sakach, of Houston, and Mrs. Edwin Gaston, of Nacogdoches; and several nieces and nephews.

Friends are cordially invited to a visitation with the family from five o’clock in the afternoon until half-past seven o’clock in the evening on Thursday, the 26th of January, in the Library and Grand Foyer of Geo. H. Lewis & Sons, 1010 Bering Drive in Houston.

A funeral service is to be conducted at eleven o’clock in the morning on Friday, the 27th of January, in the Sanctuary of Second Baptist Church, 6400 Woodway Drive in Houston, where Dr. H. Edwin Young, Pastor, is to officiate. Immediately following, all are invited to greet the family during a reception in the nearby Deacons’ Parlor.

The family is to gather for a private interment service in Nacogdoches, Texas, at a later date.

In lieu of customary remembrances and for those desiring, the family requests with gratitude that memorial contributions in Mrs. Tucker's honor be directed to Second Baptist Church, 6400 Woodway Drive, Houston, TX, 77057; or to the charity of one's choice.

“And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever."

- Ps. 23:6