Tommie Bowley Palmer

During her teenage years, Tommie was very active in school activities, especially cheerleading and marching band in Dallas, where her family relocated. She moved to Austin in her early 20s, married James Weedon, and was blessed with their daughter, Tiffany Storme. Shortly later, she and James divorced and Tommie returned to Dallas where she obtained her cosmetologist's license and began barbering while she raised her daughter. In 1980, she married Austin attorney, E. Eugene "Gene" Palmer.

Returning to Austin, her energies and creative talents supported her daughter's various activities, including cheerleading, at Hyde Park Baptist Schools. Tommie was an unabashed lover of children – an enthusiastic aunt to her nieces and nephews and "Granny" to Gene's grandchildren. She enjoyed making beautiful hair bows year round and Easter baskets for the two granddaughters and three grandsons for the annual Austin Club Easter Brunch. She helped her stepdaughter with her adventures in hair color and took up photography, documenting many special family events.

Many of her beloved animals were also the subjects of Tommie's pictures. She always owned at least one dog or cat and especially loved her last cat, Smokey Joe, which she missed until the end.

Her big heart extended to helping the sick or recovering at Seton Hospital, where she served for several years as a volunteer until a brain aneurysm landed her in the same hospital. During surgery, she suffered multiple strokes that permanently robbed her of her energy and many of her natural abilities and talents.

But even after the strokes, Tommie was able to find pleasure in family gatherings, being a grandmother, and activities like traveling and attending horse races from Retama Park to Churchill Downs. With Gene's unflagging assistance, she soldiered on with her constant nemesis-- neurological impairment -- coping with the great odds stacked against her for 20 years.

Tommie was predeceased by her husband and her mother. She is survived by her father, daughter, and grandson, Alec Canyon Palmer, along with sisters Bonnie B. Hardy (Wayne), Kathryn B. Miles (Joe), and Terry McKinney; stepdaughters, Jeffee L. Palmer and Alison Webre and their families. Nieces Kathryn Brick, Lynli Carlin, and Allison McKinney, nephews Christopher Brick and Neal McKinney, also mourn Tommie's passing. The family would like to thank the compassionate caregivers at Gracy Woods II Living Center and her long-time doctor, Sami Aboumatar, M.D., and his staff for all their kindnesses.

Services will be held at Weed-Corley-Fish Funeral Home at 3125 N. Lamar at 1:00 p.m. on Friday, January 22, 2016, with Chaplain Mike Bingaman officiating. Tommie's remains will be interred with Gene's at Ft. Sam Houston Cemetery.