Bess Church McDonald, 93, passed away Thursday, July 1, 2010.
Funeral: 2 p.m. Wednesday at First United Methodist Church. (Fort Worth)
Graveside: 11 a.m. Thursday in Rose Hill Cemetery in Merkel. Visitation: 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at Greenwood Funeral Home.
Bess Church McDonald died at home Thursday, July 1. She was 93. Her service will be at 2 p.m. Wednesday, July 7 in the sanctuary of 1st United Methodist Church in downtown Fort Worth, with burial in Rose Hill Cemetery in Merkel, Texas on Thursday, July 8 at 11 a.m.
Memorials: In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to Community Hospice of Fort Worth, Best Friends, SPCA, or any local humane society.
Mrs. McDonald was born April 27, 1917, in Merkel, and grew up with three siblings. She graduated from McMurray University with a major in Spanish. She would later receive her master's degree from Texas Christian University.
An educator throughout her life, Mrs. McDonald taught in several Texas districts, such as Alamo Heights, Borger, Coahoma, Corpus Christi, Iraan, and Odessa. She was a counselor at Permian High School when she retired with 41 years' experience.
During World War 11, she taught in a special detachment to the medical corps at Camp Barkely and worked as secretary to the base surgeon. Her husband, A.G. McDonald, had been sent to the South Pacific with his Army unit. They were apart for nearly three years because of the war. He stayed active in the reserves and achieved the rank of lieutenant colonel.
After the war was over, the couple moved to Iraan, Texas where they both taught school. Their daughter, Gerlyn, was born in 1948 while they were there. They moved to Odessa next and spent the next 30 plus years teaching there. After retiring in Odessa, she and her husband moved to Fort Worth in 1981.
She was an active club woman, having memberships in Daughters of the American Revolution, Delta Kappa Gamma, Carswell Retired Officers Club, The Woman's Club of Fort Worth, Fort Worth Retired Classroom Teachers' Association, and the First United Methodist Church, which she served as a translator at the mission.
An animal lover, Mrs. McDonald supported several animal humane associations. She enjoyed traveling with her husband and daughter.
Survivors: Daughter, Gerlyn; sister, Frances Marie Bryant of Kerrville; several nieces, nephews, and cousins.
Donald Louis Giddens (1959)
Mrs. McDonald was the one teacher at OHS who convinced me I could be an A student if I just studied. Subsequently, I made better grades in college than in high school and always remembered someone, Mrs. McDonald, believed I could.