Vivien C. Shipley

Buckner Westminster Place residence after a brief illness.

Vivien was born in Hornbeck, LA on September 5, 1924 to the late Claude H. Cabra Sr. and

Mary Curtis Cabra. After graduation from Hornbeck High School as valedictorian at the age of

16, she attended Louisiana State Normal College in Natchitoches. The war cut her college

career short after one year and she began working in 1942. She retired in 1982 from Gulf Oil

Co.’s Kilgore office after a 36-year career in Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas.

Vivien’s faith was the most important part of her life. She always displayed the certificates

acknowledging her profession of faith and baptism from Queensborough Baptist Church in

Shreveport in 1947 when she was 23. A member of Longview’s First Baptist Church, she got

great joy serving others there as a volunteer on the Collection Counting and Sunday School

Records Committees. She also delivered Meals on Wheels in Longview for a number of years

following retirement.

Vivien and her late sister Margaret Herrgesell were fellow traveling adventuresses who

especially loved taking cruises to anywhere. Other interests included studying the stock

market, collecting coins, gardening, and tackling the most difficult jigsaw puzzles she could

find.

She was also preceded in death by brothers Charles Cabra and Claude H. Cabra Jr. Survivors

include three nephews and three nieces, and numerous great and great-great nephews and

nieces.

The family would like to thank everyone at Buckner Westminster Place for giving loving care to

Vivien at her home there for the last seven years, and the hospice team at Lifecare Health

Services of Longview.

Interment will be at Lakeview Memorial Gardens with a Celebration of Life later this year. In

lieu of flowers, donations in Vivien’s honor can be made to Meals on Wheels of East Texas

online or at 3001 Robertson Rd., Tyler, TX 75701.

Arrangements are under the direction of Lakeview Funeral Home, Longview.