Barbara C. Groves

Barbara Alice Cheesman Groves, born on the 26th of May 1928, passed away peacefully on Saturday, the 24th of November 2019, surrounded by her loving family in Montgomery, Texas. She was a loving mother, sister, aunt, grandmother, and friend to the many people who knew her.

Barbara was born at home at 822 East College Street in Shreveport, Louisiana. When she was a young child, her family relocated to Texas from Louisiana. She grew up in River Oaks and met her late husband while attending Lamar High School.

After graduating high school, she was a member of Kappa Alpha Theta and studied Home Economics at the University of Texas in Austin.

Barbara raised her five children in Bunker Hill Village where she was a resident for 58 years. She was an active member of the Houston Junior League Association until the 1970’s and supported the arts through the Houston Symphony and Theater Under the Stars.

Barbara was a true outdoorswoman who enjoyed hunting in George West, fishing on Lake Conroe and Lake Livingston, and observing wildlife - specifically, the many hummingbirds that she coaxed to her backyard. She loved being near the water, whether it was on the beach at her bay house in La Porte or in Galveston with her extended family.

Barbara had fond memories of all her sorority sisters, playing bridge with her bridge club, and travelling with her sister Carolyn.

Barbara was preceded in death by her father, Dale Carroll Cheesman; mother, Margaret Way Cheesman; sister, Carolyn Cheesman Hippard; brother, Dale Carroll Cheesman, Jr.; son, Dale Cheesman Groves; and husband, Jack Groves.

Barbara will be missed by her four surviving children, Jack Sidney Groves, Jr., Carolena Groves Wilkerson, Barbara Alice Wright, Margaret G. Janssen and her husband Nico Janssen; her grandchildren, Dawn Jones Rorai and her husband Tony Rorai, Harrison Rusk and his wife Candace Majewski Rusk, Jonathan Wilkerson and his wife Andrea Wilkerson, Chelsea Wilkerson, Nicole Wright and Vinh Nguyen, Natasha Wright, Brian Janssen, Michelle Janssen and Anthony Lacagnina, Amy Janssen; her sister-in-law, Shirley Cheesman; and her great-grandchildren, Henry Rorai, Claude Rorai, Jolie Rorai, Alexis Rusk, Sheldon Rusk, and Freya Faa, and numerous nieces and nephews.

The family would like to extend a special thanks to Santorina Smith and Sagina Johns who lovingly supported and cared for Barbara.

Friends are cordially invited to a visitation with the family from five o’clock in the afternoon until seven o’clock in the evening on Monday, the 2nd of December, in the library and grand foyer of Geo. H. Lewis & Sons, 1010 Bering Drive in Houston.

A funeral service is to be conducted at noon on Tuesday, the 3rd of December, in the Jasek Chapel of Geo. H. Lewis & Sons.

Interment will immediately follow, via an escorted cortège, at Forest Park Lawndale Cemetery in Houston.

In lieu of customary remembrances, the family requests that memorial contributions in Barbara’s memory to be directed to The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, 4550 Montgomery Ave., Suite 1100 N., Bethesda, MD, 20814; The Arc of Greater Houston, 9401 Southwest Fwy. 12th Floor, Houston, TX, 77074; or to the charity of one’s choice.