Opal E. Martin Howard

Opal was born November 10, 1918 to W. Guy and Vera (McDonald) Martin on their farm near Waxahachie, Texas. She passed away peacefully on Wednesday, November 2, 2011 with her son by her side. Her father and mother are both deceased. Her two sisters: Ruth (Martin) Lewis and Larue (Martin) Shoemaker preceded her in death. She completed elementary and high school in Waxahachie public schools and started at Howard Payne College in Brownwood, Texas September 1936 where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree with a major in English. While in elementary, high school and college she maintained an A average. While at Howard Payne, she met and dated Bill Howard from Gouldbusk, Texas and they were married June 1, 1940 at her parent's home, near Prairie Hill, Texas. They were blessed with two talented children. Their daughter Charlotte (Howard) Grantier has many piano students and is an organist and music director for her church. Their son Michael is an astrophysicist. He married Magdalen Mak and they have a son, Vincent, who is working on a PhD in oceanography. Both Charlotte and Michael have had happy marriages.

Opal's 27 year teaching career consisted of 1 year in a private school, then in public schools, a year in a one-teacher grade school, 3 years in 4th grade and 22 years in her favorite, kindergarten. She taught in 5 states: Texas, Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. She retired June 5, 1975 from the State of New Jersey. She is a Life Member of the National Education Association (NEA), New Jersey Education Association (NJEA), and New Jersey Retired Educators Association (NJREA).

Opal's interest in art began before she was a student in kindergarten. Her mother arranged for art and expression lessons from a private teacher. Her family still has an excellent water color art piece from her kindergarten class. Due to her busy schedule in high school, college, teaching, and raising a family, she did not start her work with oil paintings until the early 1960's in Ridgewood, New Jersey. She joined an art class with an outstanding instructor from the Netherlands. She continued with her oil painting after retirement until she was handicapped with macular degeneration and was pronounced legally blind in 1999. Her family is fortunate to have many of her works displayed in their homes.

Opal and Bill's overseas travels started in 1970 when they took delivery of a Volkswagen camper in Luxembourg, Europe and in 4 weeks visited 7 countries. 1973 was the first NEA trip with 5 days in Japan, 5 days in Thailand, 5 days in Hong Kong and 2 days on the Island of Guam. In 1974, there was another NEA trip with 5 days in Spain, 5 days in Morocco, Africa and 5 days in Portugal. In 1977 another NEA trip was a 10 day trip to Greece and 5 of the Greek Islands with a short visit to Cairo, Egypt. Their overseas trips in retirement started in December of 1979 with 2 weeks in Western Samoa, 2,500 miles southwest of the Hawaiian Islands in the South Pacific. Two of the most rewarding trips of their travels were in February of 1983 they spent 2 days in Jordan, 5 days in the Holy Land and 2 days in Cairo, Egypt. In December of that year, they returned and spent 7 days in the Holy Land and visited Massed, where the Jews made their last stand against the Romans. They have been in every state in the United States and every Province in Canada that borders the United States.

At the early age of 6, Opal made a public profession of faith and was baptized in the First Baptist Church in Waxahachie. She was a member of the youth choir and later the adult choir. In Howard Payne College she was a member of the Life Service Band. Throughout Opal and Bill's 37 year careers in the Northeast, they were faithful to their church and were counselors in two of the Billy Graham crusades in the New York area. After retiring to Austin, Opal was a faithful member of the sanctuary choir and drama department in Hyde Park Baptist Church until she developed macular degeneration. In addition to being a devoted wife, she was a loving, compassionate, and caring mother, always encouraging her children for hard work, education, and motivation. She was able to spend the last 30 years of her life retired in Austin, the last few years of which she courageously struggled with alzheimers and dementia. During this struggle she benefited from the extraordinary loving care provided her by the staff of Westminster Manor.

Visitation will be held from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. on Friday, November 4th at Weed-Corley-Fish Funeral Home. Funeral services will be at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, November 5, 2011 in the Weed-Corley-Fish Chapel. Graveside services are scheduled for 2:00 p.m. on Sunday at Coleman City Cemetery, Coleman, Texas.