Blanche Miller Shaw, 99, passed away January 2, 2008. She was born December 26, 1908 in Belott, Houston County, Texas, the third daughter of Estelle Conner Miller and Edwin Lawrence Miller. She was a direct descendant of Francis B. Conner and his wife, Sarah, who migrated to Texas in 1831 from Abbeville, South Carolina.
In 1909, the Miller family moved to Ratcliff, Texas, and later to Huntsville, Texas, where Blanche and her two sisters received Bachelor of Arts degrees from Sam Houston State University (then Sam Houston State Teachers College). She began teaching at age 18 and taught first grade for forty-three years in the Anahuac, Luling, Barbers Hill and Houston schools. She obtained a Master of Arts Degree from the University of Houston in 1942, graduating with honors. During this time, she married Vern Shaw, a native of Denver, Colorado.
Mrs. Shaw retired from teaching in 1970, and moved from Houston to Beaumont, Texas to be near family. She was a member of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, Daughters of the American Revolution, United Daughters of the Confederacy, Texas Retired Teachers Association, and Trinity Methodist Church, Beaumont, Texas. She loved to read and research her family genealogy. She also loved to travel and visited many foreign countries, as well as all fifty states in the United States.
Blanche was preceded in death by her husband, Vern Shaw; her parents; her two sisters, Edice Hines and Myrtle Barclay; and a nephew, Patrick Hines. She is survived by her niece, Beverly Barclay Collie of Beaumont; three great nieces, Susan Collie Holmes of Englewood, Colorado, Catherine Collie Schulte of Kerrville, Texas and Laura Collie Hayes of Beaumont; and eight great, great nieces and nephews.
Services will be 11:00 a.m. Thursday, January 10, 2007 at Broussard’s, 2000 McFaddin, Beaumont. Interment will follow at 3:00 p.m. Magnolia Cemetery in Woodville, Texas.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to The Salvation Army, P.O. Box 3706, Beaumont, Texas 77704-3706.
