Miriam Preston Collins

Miriam Preston Collins, 85, died at home on Wednesday, December 31, 2014. Born on November 13, 1929, in Memphis, Tennessee to Nancy Roebuck Preston and Dr. William Hall Preston, Miriam grew up in Nashville, graduating from Hillsboro High School in 1947. She attended Blue Mountain College, graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in History and Speech (class of 1951) and received her Master’s degree in English and Education from Vanderbilt University in 1952.

Miriam’s father, Dr. Preston, was instrumental in establishing Baptist student ministry on college campuses and from an early age, Miriam often joined her father in his work with college students, travelling both nationally and internationally. Thus began Miriam’s lifelong love and passion for ministry to college students.

After graduating from Vanderbilt, Miriam accepted a job as Baptist Student Union director at Rice University and Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. Upon her move to Houston in 1952, she joined South Main Baptist Church where she met Perryman Collins, then a student at Baylor College of Medicine. They married in the summer of 1955, and moved to Maryland where Perryman would complete his surgical training at Johns Hopkins and the National Institutes of Health.

In 1963, Perryman and Miriam returned to Houston with their four children. Perryman established his surgical practice, and Miriam served as his office administrator and support.

Their family rejoined South Main Baptist Church where Miriam taught Sunday School for 50 years. This included decades of teaching college students, singles and more recently her senior adult class, Koinonia. In addition, Miriam taught international students for over 20 years in SMILE, South Main’s English language program. In 1983, she was elected a deacon at South Main and chosen as an Honored Deacon in 2013.

Miriam and Perryman were married for 58 years, until his death in August 2013.

Miriam shared Perryman’s love of the Davis Mountains and Paisano Baptist Encampment, which lies halfway between Alpine and Marfa, Texas, near the base of Paisano Peak. She was first introduced to the area when Perryman took her there on their honeymoon in 1955. Miriam quickly became part of Perryman’s Paisano family, and Paisano remained an active part of Miriam and her family’s lives for almost every summer thereafter. She served on the Board of Directors of Paisano for over 20 years. Paisano is a place where all the things that really mattered to Miriam and Perryman are taught and engrained year after year, decade after decade, generation after generation – love of God, family and friends; cultivating old and new friendships; Bible study, hymn singing and preaching; cowboy cooking, especially extended breakfasts with family and friends; and cool nights, big skies and mountain air.

Miriam and Perryman made their last trip to Paisano in 2012, some 57 years after their honeymoon there.

Miriam’s faith was her core, and strongly influenced everything that she did. She wanted everyone to know the love of Jesus that she had experienced, and she shared her faith openly. Any overnight visitors to their home would receive a wonderful home-cooked breakfast, but only after Miriam had opened her dog-eared and underlined Bible and read a few verses of scripture and explained why those scriptures (whichever ones they were) were the most important scriptures to her.

Miriam’s passions included a love for God and the Bible, a deep love and loyalty to her family, and a strong calling to be a friend to many and a stranger to none. Perhaps no one has ever had more “best” friends, because to know Miriam was to be considered her dear friend.

Miriam was preceded in death by her parents and her husband of 58 years, Perryman. She is survived by her children and grandchildren who she loved so deeply: Beth Collins Wray of Houston, Texas; Perryman Collins, Jr., M.D., of Albuquerque, New Mexico, and wife Paula, and children, Daniel and Emily Collins and Blake Meyer; Bill Collins of Natchitoches, Louisiana, and wife Phyllis, and children, Cole and Cordell Collins; and Lainie Collins Cline of Houston, Texas, and husband Wade, and children Kenneth, Andrew and Abby Cline; her brother William Preston of Booneville, Mississippi, and wife Jane; her brother John Preston of Farmington, New Mexico, and wife Sara; her brother-in-law, Stephen Collins of Colleyville, Texas, and wife Jane; her sister-in-law, Ruth Collins Wilkerson of Lubbock, Texas, and husband John; and numerous nieces, nephews and cousins.

The family wishes to thank Mercy Pesculado and Dorothy Wong, Miriam’s caretakers, as well as her many friends and fellow residents of The Forum, and its staff.

Friends are cordially invited to a visitation with the family from four o’clock this afternoon until six o’clock this evening, Sunday, the 4th of January, in the Jasek Chapel of Geo. H. Lewis & Sons, 1010 Bering Drive in Houston.

The memorial service is to be conducted at eleven o’clock in the morning on Monday, the 5th of January, at South Main Baptist Church, 4100 Main Street in Houston, where Dr. Steve Wells, Pastor, is to officiate.

Immediately following, all are invited to greet the family during a reception to be held in the fellowship hall.

Prior to the service, the family will have gathered for a private interment at Glenwood Cemetery in Houston.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that gifts, if desired, be made to either Paisano Baptist Encampment, c/o Buddy Baldridge, Vice President, Finance, 6725 Highway 380, Snyder, Texas 79549, South Main Baptist Church, Attn: Brad Jernberg, 4100 Main Street, Houston, Texas 77002, or Blue Mountain College, Office of Institutional Advancement, P.O. Box 160, Blue Mountain, Mississippi 38610.