Eugenia Gertrude Honea Bennett

Funeral services for Eugenia Gertrude Honea Bennett will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 24 at Greenvine Baptist Church, 5010 FM 2502 Road, Burton with with Pastor Jack Faulkner officiating. Burial will follow later the funeral service at 3 p.m at Forest Park Lawndale, 6900 Lawndale Street, Houston. Visitation will be held Friday, Nov. 23 from 6-8 p.m. at Memorial Oaks Chapel, 1306 West Main, Brenham.

Eugenia Gertrude Honea Bennett was born in Houston on Sept. 18, 1921 to Jewel Nixon Honea and Randolph Thomas Honea. Eugenia (Gertie) attended Milby High School, where she proudly drilled as an Elk Cadet. On a bus ride home, she caught the eye of the handsome young driver, and soon after, Eugenia married the love of her entire life, Samuel Reese Bennett, on April 21, 1940. Sam and Gertie started their family, which grew to include their sons Samuel Thomas Bennett and Raymond Reese Bennett, and daughters Eugenia Jeanette Daniels, Cassandra Gertrude Chaffee and Susan Lee Anderson. Sam and Gertie were married until Sam’s death on March 3, 2001.

Gertie became MeeMee to a growing family of ten grandchildren, Lisa Jenkins, Jeff Bennett, Jennifer Kaplan, Susan Daniels, Bryan Bennett, Laura Rosales, Jay Britain, Scott Chaffee, Julianne Urban and Caitlin Chaffee. She later was blessed with the addition of two more grandchildren, Nick Patin and Jenna Huntsman. MeeMee went on to love, spoil, and cherish 13 great-grandchildren.

Gertie Bennett was an active PTA member, holding several offices, including president of her region. She also served in the same leadership capacity in her local Homemaker's Extension Club, and was a longtime member of the Greenvine Baptist Church.

Gertrude loved family, her brothers and sisters remained close throughout her lifetime. Gertie was a talented florist, who created beautiful designs at Lowry's Florist Shop in Houston and in the floral shop at Forst Park. Gertie loved her vacations and made sure her children experienced the joys of the mountains in Colorado and New Mexico, the wonders of Yellowstone, and the family togetherness of camping in the Texas state parks. Gertie traveled to Hawaii, Alaska, Europe, Mexico, Canada, and all over most of the continental U.S. She spent five years in the Pacific Northwest, where she cared for a small menagerie of farm animals on a farm on the Mt. Baker Highway while Sam worked as a nearby refinery.

MeeMee's family will miss her. We will miss her caring, her stories, her feisty rebel attitude, and her love. we have faith that she is in God's peaceful company, along with her Sam, her son Tommy, her Daddy, and all those who loved her so much in life and have passed to heaven before her.