Connie Sue Alexander, 70 of Beaumont died December 4, 2016 of complications of Septic Shock. She was born premature, weighing 3 lbs. 10 ounces in 1946. To give their tiny first child strength, her parents, Hershel and Marguerite Collins gave her the name Constance. Though she herself later legally shortened it to Connie, it was a most fitting name for the way she faced and met all the challenges of life throughout her days. Only in young adulthood would she learn that she had had Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome from birth, which caused her entire body to be softer, ligaments and joints weaker and would cause a host of health challenges and surgeries. However she was up to the challenge, overcoming, adapting, advocating for herself but rarely complaining. Her list of things she was accomplishing was always greater than the list of ailments.
Connie was adventurous. Childhood clumsiness, bruises and stitches didn’t stop her, nor a hip replacement or ankle surgeries as an adult. She was always up for exploring even when money was very tight. She always seemed to “bloom where she was planted.” including 4 special years in Naples, Italy. She took a number of trips overseas, and few castles, churches and museums were beyond her ability to visit, even later in life when she needed a wheelchair. She was always prepared to drive anywhere including San Francisco and Chicago and throughout Italy.
Connie loved learning and teaching. She prospered at the University of Illinois, and became an English teacher first in Smyrna, TN and then the American School, Naples, Italy. Later she was an editor for Sunset Magazine, before entering Banking, eventually managing 8 branches of a bank. She had felt nudgings of call to preaching for years, had served as a ruling elder in Presbyterian churches from her early 20s into her 40s, before graduating from San Francisco Theological Seminary with a Master of Divinity, and later from McCormick Theological Seminary with a Doctorate in Ministry. She served pastorates in Plainview and Dimmit, TX, Ruston and Winnfield, LA and Orange, TX. After she had to retire early on disability, she continued along with her husband Paul, to pastorally support small Presbyterian congregations in Southeast Texas and La Porte until a few months before her death.
Connie was loving and giving. She had one child, son Michael before becoming unable to have further children. She fostered several children and adopted son Cody. She also cared for a blind, elderly friend in her home for some years and hosted several exchange students, one staying in touch until the end of Connie’s life. She persevered for years through two very troubled marriages and 25 years of being single before she found the love of her life at age 59 on a trip to Holy land sites in the Kingdom of Jordan. She and Paul had 10 wonderful years of true marriage and teamwork.
Connie had an amazing heart. She was truly a friend to the friendless and always strived to be Christ’s hands and feet to a broken and hurting world. When she met Jesus he surely said, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.” Connie (known as Mimi to her grandsons), will be dearly missed but never forgotten by the many lives that she touched. She is survived by her husband Paul, son Michael Nieto and his wife Kelly, son Cody Nieto, brother James Collins and his husband Michael Miller, sister Anne Nicolas and her husband Richard, nephews Matthew, Greg and Bryan Nicolas and grandsons Samuel and Joshua Nieto and a host of other relations.
Reverend Alexander's memorial service will be 10:00 a.m., Saturday, January 7, 2017, at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, 1350 North 23rd Street, Beaumont, under the direction of Broussard's.
