Rose Byrd

Rose Mae Byrd (née Spacek) - a beloved wife, mother, grandmother, great grandmother, and celebrated millinery connoisseur - departed this world on Thursday, June 7, 2012. She was born on July 20, 1916, in Granger, Texas, to Arnold and Mary Spacek (née Cervenka) and was preceded in death by her parents, her sister, Thelma Torn, her brothers, Eddie and Sam Spacek, two nieces and three nephews, and on March 4, 2000, by her loving husband of 60 years, W. Weldon Byrd.

She is survived by her son, W. Chapman Byrd and his wife, Barbara, of Austin, Texas, and her daughter, Judith Byrd-Burnette, and husband, Dr. W. Neal Burnette, of Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Rose also leaves behind her adoring grandchildren: Mark C. Byrd of Austin, Brandy Byrd Hallford and her husband Jerry of Round Rock, Brittany Byrd Kruse and husband Matthew, also of Round Rock, Dr. Rosemary Byrd (Burnette) McCullough and her husband Dr. Mark McCullough of Ave Maria, Florida, and Ashlee (Burnette) McDonald and husband Aaron of New York City. Seven great grandchildren also survive: Ethan, Ambrose, Catherine, and Jude McCullough of Florida; Hope Hallford and Lauren and John Kruse of Texas. Rose is also survived by her sister-in-law, Nelda Byrd Reed of Marianna, Arkansas, and by many cousins, nieces, and nephews in Texas, Virginia, New York, Connecticut, Nevada, Arizona, and Oklahoma.

Rose graduated a year early from Granger High School, where she was proud of her overall academic average of 96%. She excelled in drama, piano, and art. She studied expression privately since early childhood and starred in her high school senior play, The Red Headed Stepchild, won second place in the Williamson County piano meet playing Schubert's Serenade, and always felt privileged to have been exposed as a youngster to the fine arts; her father always said, "One can be robbed of material possessions, but never of one's background or education."

As anyone who met her could attest, she had a creative flair for style, interior design and, of course, for hats!

After three years studying speech, art, and education, Rose graduated from Southwestern University in Georgetown. She loved teaching and her first position was with the Leander Independent School District, teaching art and music in first and second grade; for her students, she organized a rhythm band which placed first at the county interscholastic meet in Georgetown.

As a freshman at Southwestern, she met Weldon Byrd, a junior, who would become her soul mate and husband of 60 years. In a classic wedding where she appeared at the top of the formal staircase, they were married in her childhood home in Granger on Sunday, June 2, 1940. The following day, they arrived in College Station for Weldon to register for graduate school in agronomy. After receiving his master's degree the following year, Weldon began work in soil conservation with the Department of Agriculture; they first lived in Hillsboro and Hewitt (near Waco), then Round Rock, San Antonio, moving to Austin in 1951. Rose spent the rest of her teaching career as Director of the Child Care Center at Pease Elementary School, the oldest continually-operating public school in Texas.

Her love of Austin was reflected in her many years of work with the Heritage Society where she organized the successful "1886 Tea Room" at the Driskill Hotel, subsequently working there as a volunteer docent for nine years. Rose was a longtime member of the Woman's Symphony League and the Austin Woman's Club. She and Weldon were charter members of the LBJ Library and Museum Foundation, and Rose remained a member until her death. She belonged to the Texas Retired Teachers Association, the Zeta Tau Alpha Mother's Club, and for 21 years a member of the Austin Museum of Art, Laguna Gloria.

Rose collected antiques and especially loved her family heirlooms which filled her home on Northwood Road, the home she and Weldon named "Wing Haven". Both were avid birdwatchers, enjoying the avian antics from their living room window - including those of the white-winged doves, cardinals, wrens, the feisty bluebirds, hummingbirds, and the occasional lone woodpecker.

Rose's favorite prayer was the Prayer for God's Support by John Henry Cardinal Newman, which reads: "May He support us all the day long, till the shadows lengthen, and the evening comes, and the busy world is hushed, and the fever of life is over, and our work is done. Then in His mercy, may He give us a safe lodging, and a holy rest, and peace at last."

Rose's family wishes to thank her many friends, Hospice Austin, and the Summit at Westlake Hills in Austin for their extraordinary concern and care. We wish to particularly note the enduring love of Kay Killen, cousin Sister Elizabeth Riebschlager, ccvi, nephew Ed and Tannie Spacek, niece Patricia (Torn) and Karl Alexander, Nancy McKesson, Rebecca Thrasher Brownlow, and the wonderful staff in skilled nursing at the Summit.

Her life will be celebrated in a memorial service at 2:00 p.m., on Wednesday, June 13, at Weed-Corley-Fish Funeral Home, 3125 North Lamar, Austin, Texas.

"The love of a mother is never exhausted. It never changes, it never tires, it endures through all ... a mother's love still lives on." - -Washington Irving

[Published in Austin American-Statesman on June 10, 2012.]