Sybil Lou Garrett Davis, 92, passed away peacefully Sunday, August 29, 2010, at Pine Arbor Health Care Center in Silsbee, Texas. She was born January 13, 1918, in Gilmer, Texas; the daughter of the late Roger and Beulah (Roach) Garrett.
Sybil graduated from Gilmer High School in 1935, and then attended East Texas State Teachers College, where she completed her Bachelors degree in 1941. She taught elementary education classes in the Orange, Gladewater, Baytown, Upshur County, and Mesquite Independent School Districts for a total of thirty-eight years. During this time, she also completed a Masters degree in education from East Texas State University and was elected to Delta Kappa Gamma, a professional sorority for educators. Sybil was a dedicated kindergarten and first grade teacher, touching the lives of thousands of students during her teaching career.
She loved to sing in the church choir wherever she lived and was a member of the First Methodist Church and First Presbyterian Church of Mesquite. In retirement, she also sang in a senior choir, the Rainbow Connection. She enjoyed planting and cultivating flowers in her garden, which reflected her strong attachment to the land as a child growing up in rural Soules Chapel. She worked hard all of her life to raise her two sons, sometimes as a single parent, and loved them and their families dearly spending most of her time with them and her husband Harvey in her later years.
She is survived by her son and daughter-in-law, Mark and Margarett McAfee of Parrish, Florida and son and daughter-in law, Tony and Teri Thornton of Kountze, Texas; four grandchildren, Cory McAfee and his wife Yvonne of Garland, T.J. Thornton and his wife Emily of Kountze, Tiffany Williford and her husband Cody of Kountze, and Ryan McAfee and his wife Angie of Sarasota, Florida; four great grandchildren, Addison Grace and Tex Thornton, Avery Williford, and Caitlyn McAfee. She is preceded in death by her husband of forty-two years, James Harvey Davis, and all of her four sisters and three brothers.
A graveside service will be 11:00 a.m. Friday, September 3, 2010, at Soules Chapel Cemetery, with a celebration of life reception following at Soules Chapel Methodist Church, 7713 FM 556, Soules Chapel, near Gilmer, Texas under the direction of Broussard’s Mortuary in Kountze.
Complete and updated information may be viewed at www.broussards1889.com.
