Melba Foreman

Melba J. Alexander Foreman, 81, of Temple, Texas, passed away January 22, 2013 surrounded by family and friends.

She was born April 7, 1931, beloved daughter of the late Milady Corley. She had 11 siblings. She later was adopted by the late Charles and Eva Alexander of Temple, Texas.

She graduated from the University of Texas in Austin in the late 1950s as an English Major, with a Minor in Journalism. She took early basic courses at the University of Mexico in Mexico City. She later went back to college at the University of Houston and received a degree in Early Childhood Education. She continued her education at UTD in Tyler, Texas.

During the 1970s, she taught kindergarten at Peete Elementary in Tyler, Texas and later for many years at Whitehouse Elementary in Whitehouse, Texas. In the early 1990s she taught at both Saint Marys Catholic School and McGowen Stephens Elementary School in Temple, Texas. She also worked as a substitute teacher for the Temple ISD.

Besides her long career as an educator, she worked as an editor, a medical transcriptionist and as a museum curator for both the Temple Railroad and the Czech Heritage Museums.
She was a member of the Czech Geneology Society and SPJST Lodge 47.

Melba is survived by daughters Eva Lott of Temple, Texas, Susan Stephenson and soninlaw James of Belton, Texas, Marjorie Boyd and soninlaw Mark of Garland, Texas and Leslie Huffman and soninlaw Sam of Rogers, Texas. Also her sisters Betty Tibbetts and husband James of Nolanville, Texas and Margaret Fetterman of Rogers, Texas, her sister June Stickney and husband Richard of Yakima, WA, her brothers Jack Corley and wife Janice, Woody Corley and wife Kaffie and Thomas Corley and wife Sue all of Tyler, Texas, her sisterinlaws Eleanor Barrett of California and Mallory Edie of Connecticut. She has five grandchildren Apryl Arguello, Holley and Eric Boyd, Stephanie Hernandez and Joseph Huffman, and five great grandchildren Jacob and Samuel Arguello, Johnathon Lichnovsky and Madeline and Lillyanne Hernandez. She has numerous cousins, nieces and nephews as well as many loving friends.

She is preceded in death by husband Henry, an infant child Henry Leonard, Jr., sisters Opal Lamar, Middie Lee Bertran, Dorothy Hawthorne and brothers Sonny and Billy Frank Corley and a grandson Thomas Henry Lott .

She dedicated her life to the care and education of young children. Her passions were the written word and the pursuit of knowledge. She was devoted to taking fresh minds and teaching that love to them as well.

The visitation will be Friday, January 25, 2013 from 68 at the funeral home. The service will be held Saturday the 26th of January at 10:00am at the HarperTalasek Funeral Home in Temple, Texas. She will be laid to rest next to her parents at the Hillcrest Cemetery in Temple. A bereavement meal will follow at HarperTalasek Funeral home.

Visitation

HarperTalasek Funeral Home
500 W. Barton Ave.
Temple, TX  76501
Friday, January 25, 2013
68 pm

Service

Chapel Service

HarperTalasek Funeral Home
500 W. Barton Ave.
Temple, TX  76501
Saturday, January 26, 2013
10 am

Cemetery

Hillcrest Cemetery
1873 N. 1st Street
Temple, TX  76501