Nell Elise Walker

b. 25 July 1910, d. 13 December 2015
  • Nell Elise Walker was born on 25 July 1910 in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.
  • Samie W. Adams appeared in the US federal census of 1 January 1920 in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas, at 424 Eads Avenue. Other members of the household included Nell Elise Walker, John Thomas Walker.
  • Samie W. Adams appeared in the US federal census of 1 April 1930 in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas, at 422 Eads Street. Other members of the household included Nell Elise Walker, John Thomas Walker.
  • She was a secretary for an oil company, according to the 1930 census.
  • The following appeared on 7 February 1935 in The San Antonio Light: Assistant Criminal District Attorney John Leroy Jeffers won't be in his office to callers Friday morning. At 10:30 a. m. he and Miss Nell Elise Walker, 422 Eads avenue, will be joined in wedlock in St. Mark's Episcopal church. Jeffers lives at 501 West Evergreen street.
  • She married John Leroy Jeffers, son of Theodore Franklin Jeffers and Cynthia Isa Ewing, on 8 February 1935 in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas, at St. Mark's Episcopal Church.
  • The following appeared on 8 August 1936 in The San Antonio Light: Nell Walker Jeffers stopped long enough in Bandera to drop us a postcard of the 1920 vintage of wit. She thought maybe we'd be amused. The card pictures a daffy looking individual tipping his hat to an only slightly less daffy looking woman. Under it the bon mot: "Last Night I Picked Up Station O-U-K-I-D!"
  • John Leroy Jeffers and Nell Elise Walker appeared in the US federal census of 1 April 1940 in Alamo Heights, Bexar County, Texas, at 437 Evans Avenue.
  • The following appeared on 26 December 1941 in The San Antonio Light: Mr. and Mrs. John T. Walker of Alexandria, La., are visiting the Leroy Jeffers until Sunday.
  • The following appeared on 28 February 1944 in The San Antonio Light: Mr. and Mrs. Leroy Jeffers and son of Houston visited last week with Mrs. Jeffers' mother, Mrs. Samie A. Walker.
  • The following appeared on 23 August 1948 in The San Antonio Light: Mr. and Mrs. Leroy Jeffers, Houston, formerly of San Antonio, spent several days here last week with her mother, Mrs. Samie Adams Walker. The returned home Sunday.
  • She officially witnessed the death of Samie W. Adams on 5 February 1953 at Nix Memorial Hospital in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.
  • The following appeared on 6 February 1953 in the San Antonio Express: Mrs. Samie Adams Walker, 75, of 422 Eads Ave., died in a local hospital Thursday.
         She was a native of Hempstead and had lived here 34 years. Mrs. Walker was a member of Westminster Presbyterian Church.
         Surviving are a son, John T. Walker of New Orleans, and a daughter, Mrs. Leroy Jeffers of Houston.
         Services will be held at 10 a.m. Friday at the Porter Loring Chapel with the Rev. Glenn Murray officiating. Burial will be in Mission Burial Park.
  • Nell Elise Walker became a widow at the 4 July 1979 death of her husband John Leroy Jeffers.
  • Nell Elise Walker died on 13 December 2015 at age 105 in Houston, Harris County, Texas, at her residence.
  • She was interred at Forest Park Cemetery, Houston, Harris County, Texas.
  • The following appeared on 15 December 2015 in the Houston Chronicle: Having lived a long, fulfilling and blessedly healthy life, Nell Elise Walker Jeffers (Mrs. John Leroy Jeffers) died peacefully at her home on Sunday, December 13, 2015 at 105 years of age.
         She was born to Samie Adams Walker and John David Walker on July 25, 1910 in San Antonio, Texas where she graduated from high school and attended college. Working for a San Antonio law firm, she met Leroy Jeffers on his first day as a young associate immediately following his graduation from the University of Texas Law School, Class of '32. They married at St. Mark's Episcopal Church, San Antonio on February 8, 1935 and lived there until 1942 when Judge James A. Elkins recruited her husband, a gifted trial lawyer, to Vinson, Elkins, Weems and Francis. She was a devoted wife and actively supported his successful career as a senior partner of the firm, his leadership in the Houston, Texas and American bar associations, the American College of Trial Lawyers and other distinguished legal groups, his service on the board and as chairman of the University of Texas Board of Regents, the University of Texas Law School Foundation, the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center Board of Visitors, and their numerous other civic commitments until his untimely death in 1979.
         Moving to the Memorial area's Piney Point Road in 1950, then a country venue of pine forests, oak groves and shell roads, Nell and Leroy became key civic leaders in the incorporation and development of Piney Point Village, serving as charter members of St. Francis Episcopal (Parish) Church, active leaders in the young Spring Branch Independent School District and other Village governance and community groups.
         Possessed of life-long intellectual curiosity, she was a voracious reader with a wide range of interests, a skilled bridge player, an engaged participant in Rice University, University of Houston, Women's Institute and Houston Seminar courses and was a patron of the Houston Symphony, Houston Grand Opera, Alley Theatre and Museum of Fine Arts. She was an enthusiastic educational and pleasure traveler and relished her last trip to Paris at the age of 94 with her daughter and son-in-law.
         From 1942-1950 and from 1963 to the present, she was a faithful communicant of Christ Church Cathedral where she served on the altar guild and as a member of St. Martha's Guild. She was a member of the Houston Country Club, the University of Texas Chancellor's Council, former member of the Houston Club and the Texas Philosophical Society, former docent at the Museum of Fine Arts and the MFA Bayou Bend Collection, and past president of the Houston Bar Association Women's Auxiliary, Kappa Alpha Theta Mother's Club, Piney Point/Memorial Drive Garden Club and the Memorial Drive Elementary and Spring Branch Junior High School PTA's. She offered unwavering support for the personal, professional and civic commitments of her son and daughter throughout their youth and adulthood and took great joy in the lives and affection of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
    With a quiet inner strength and abiding faith, she handled both the tragedies and triumphs of her life with uncommon grace and unflappable fortitude and was beloved by her husband, children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and many friends throughout her life.
         She was preceded in death by her husband, John Leroy Jeffers (1979), son, John Leroy Jeffers, Jr. (1989), granddaughter, Adrienne Elise Jeffers (1986) and younger brother, John Thomas Walker (1992).
         Grateful for the length of her loving presence in their lives are those who survive her: daughter, Mary Nell Jeffers Lovett and husband, H. Malcolm Lovett, Jr; grandchildren, Mary Eliza Lovett Shaper and husband C. Park Shaper, Kate MacArthur Lovett Searls and husband, David T. Searls III, John Franklin Jeffers and wife, Elizabeth Huber Jeffers; great-grandchildren, Charles Lovett Shaper, Nell Bennett Shaper, Stephen Jeffers Shaper, Charles Crighton Jeffers, Hallie Walker Jeffers, Mary Eloise Searls and Caroline MacArthur Searls; daughter-in-law, Susan Pinson Jeffers Belding; and devoted friend of 70 years, Willie Byers, beloved by us all and to whom we are grateful for her loving attention to Mother and four generations of our family. We also wish to acknowledge the kindness and friendship of Mother's young friends, Pinky Bushman, Barbara Britt, Lucy Arnold and Ann Kelly, and we wish to express our heartfelt appreciation to Vivian Ann Taylor, Wanda Rochelle Radford and Paulette Robinson for their respectful and devoted care during the past decade and to the Houston Hospice Blue Team for its gentle, dignified attention during the past year.
         Funeral services will be held on Friday, December 18th at 10 o'clock in the morning at Christ Church Cathedral, 1117 Texas Ave, 77002 with the The Very Rev. Barkley Thompson officiating, followed by a reception at the Cathedral. After the reception, a private interment will be held. Pallbearers will be her son-in-law, grandson, grandsons-in-law and great-grandsons.
         For those desiring, the family suggests donations to the Christ Church Cathedral Endowment Fund, 1117 Texas Avenue, Houston, Texas 77002.
  • Last Edited: 22 Apr 2016

Family: John Leroy Jeffers b. 15 October 1909, d. 4 July 1979