Remembering my Grandma

As some of you have probably heard on Facebook my Grandma passed away this week. To remember her I'm doing a special blog post for her.

Pauline Ira Higginbotham was born on the eighteenth of September in the year of 1923 in Edom, Van Zandt County, Texas. She was the first child of Captain McKinley Higginbotham and Martha Lou Norris. She had three brothers and two sisters who she loved very much.

            She went to 1^st grade through 9^th grade in Beckville, Texas. She went to high school in Carthage where she was a student with Jim Reeves. Her mother died September 5, 1933 and her father passed away November 14, 1939. She graduated from high school after her father passed away and worked in Walgreens Drug Store in Marshall, Texas. She worked at another store before leaving to work in a shipyard in Orange, Texas. She worked there throughout World War II in that shipyard.

            After the war she went to San Antonio, Texas, where she worked at Joskes Department Store and at the Elks Club as a secretary. She visited the Circle B night club/dance club where she met the man who would become her future husband: Jack C Glenn.

            On February 23, 1951 she was married to Jack C Glenn in Watkins Glen, Schuyler, New York. Together they had Linda Palmer Glenn, Gerald Wayne Glenn, and Kenneth Lee Glenn. She had a fear of tall trees falling down on the houses where they lived, and so were careful about where they stayed.

            When her husband got discharged from the air force they moved back to San Diego, California, where they established their home. They lived in San Diego and the surrounding area for 30 years before they both retired and moved back to Texas.

            Like her husband, Pauline had a deep interest in genealogy and family history. The two of them had difficulty tracking down the ancestors of her mother and grandmothers. I tried to help while serving as a missionary in the Family and Church History Headquarters mission without success. Eventually they found a death certificate for her father’s mother listing the name of her and her father. Their joy was great that day.

            I remember during one visit to Grandma and Grandpa’s house in Henderson, Texas that I saw a little toy Triceratops on one of their bookshelves. I hadn’t seen any like that since I was a kid. They reminded me that I gave that toy to them when I was young. I was glad that they still had it with them.

            Pauline had auburn hair for most of her life, and her third grandson through Kenneth’s line, who would be me, was very surprised when they came to visit one year and it had gone white. She stood at about her husband’s shoulder in height. In her old age Pauline had several trips to the hospital during which her children and grandchildren came and visited her. She was grateful for the company.

           I learned she was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as an adult. She and her husband Jack were raising their children when she felt they needed to raise them in a church environment. However she wanted to join a church she felt was truly interested in their welfare. Jack was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints but had fallen into inactivity. A bishop from the church kept visiting them regularly, and Pauline started going to church. She was always accompanied by her children. Eventually she joined and got her husband to attend as well. 

            She passed away on the sixth of October, 2014 in Celina, Texas. May she rest in peace.