Rebecca Ruth Crozier

Rebecca Ruth Crozier, 90, of Waelder, passed away Sunday, March 2, 2014. Rebecca Ruth was born Dec. 9, 1923 in her family home in Waelder to Frank William Crozier and Mary Ella Allsup Crozier. She was a member of the First Baptist Church in Waelder and the Texas and Southwestern Cattlemen’s Association.

Rebecca Ruth had worked as the Waelder City Secretary and she had worked for the Gonzales County Tax Office. She also had served on the Waelder City Council, but her primary job was tending to her ranch and raising cattle. 

As a youth living in Waelder and attending the Waelder Schools, Rebecca Ruth played girls basketball and softball. She grew up as a tomboy of sorts, able to excel in sports, tend to the needs of a working ranch, but also crochet and bake legendary fresh coconut cakes.

It wasn’t uncommon for her to bring a problematic calf home to hand feed and nurture to good health. She enjoyed nature; she grew oak trees from seeds and transplanted them wherever she thought there should be a grand oak.

She loved her rat terriers that she always fondly kept as pets. She raised catfish in her pond, but they weren’t for consumption, just for the pleasure of hand feeding.

Rebecca Ruth kept her hands busy. If she wasn’t tending to her ranch working cattle, repairing fence or planting an oak seedling, she was working with leather to make a saddle or a billfold or crocheting a sweater for one of her nieces or a hot pad for their kitchen. She remained productive throughout her life; it was just the manner in which she chose to live and an example to nieces and nephews.

She enjoyed her family and loved having her nieces and nephews around her. She taught many of them how to ride a bicycle and a brahma bull, though the bull was tame, enduring the bumps, bruises and scrapes of learning to ride a bicycle remains a more pleasant memory.

She showed them that a woman could drive a tractor and shred pastures all day and still bake and decorate lovely cakes in the evening. She taught them to fish and then quickly release the fish back to the pond. Rebecca Ruth taught them how to shoot turtles and the fun of shooting dry cow patties thrown in the air or up on the bank of the pond. 

They enjoyed riding in her pickup truck through the pastures counting calves and listening to her call up cattle in a sound only she could make that would draw the cattle home. She was an industrious woman. She made many things with her hands, but most of all she made memories.

Rebecca Ruth was indeed a caring and loving woman. She and her sister cared for their mother as well as their brothers James and Ned as they became aged and ill. It was the love of people that drove her to serve on the city council to keep her community a pleasant pace to live.

She had served as a director of the Waelder cemetery association because she respected those that had lived before and led the way. Because she lived, Rebecca Ruth made Waelder a better place to live, by her selfless service, by the trees she planted, by her love of children and community and by the manner in which she lived.

Rebecca Ruth Crozier is survived by her sisters, Mary Ella Crozier of Waelder and Patricia Pope of San Antonio; nieces, Carol Crozier Keller and her husband Tom of San Antonio, Patsy Crozier McMains and her husband James of Gonzales, Eloise Pope Simms of Colleyville and Elaine Pope Bullard and her husband Tom of Waelder; nephews, Richard L. Crozier and his wife Barbara of Gonzales, Charles W. Pope and his wife Alison of San Antonio and numerous great-nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her parents and brothers, William, James, Samuel “Ned” and Joe Crozier.

Funeral services were held at 11 a.m. Wednesday, March 5, in the First Baptist Church in Waelder with Rev. Clint Lowery officiating. Interment followed in Waelder City Cemetery. Pallbearers were Richard Crozier, Charles Pope, David Vanderhider, Jonathan McMains, Michael McMains and James McMains. Memorials may be made to the Waelder Cemetery Association. The family received friends at the funeral home from 5 to 7 p.m. Tuesday evening. Services are under the care and direction of Seydler-Hill Funeral Home.