Esther Louise Scarbrough

A little more than a week after her ninety-second birthday, Esther Lou Scarbrough left this earth for heaven on December 19, 2024, at about 3:00 p.m., surrounded by her family. Her death was as she was: quiet and reserved, a last sigh with no signs of pain.

She was born Esther Louise Fain on December 11, 1932, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, to William Walter and Esther Rose (née Alberts) Fain. She grew up on NW 17th Street near May Avenue and lived her life surrounded by her extended family: her aunts and uncles, her grandparents and their siblings. An only child, she adored her four first cousins, one of whom, Larry, was essentially the brother she never had. Her extended, German-immigrant family was among the founding members of the Eighth Street Methodist Church.

Esther Lou graduated from Classen High School in 1951. She then worked as a “tour aide” for Continental Oil Company, back when the public called oil companies to help plot travel routes across the United States. In 1954, she married her beloved Benjamin Paul Scarbrough of Overbrook, Oklahoma. An Air Force pilot, they followed his military career to Tucson, Arizona; Cheyenne, Wyoming; and Broadstairs, England.

After his discharge, they settled in Oklahoma City where she went to work as head of the stenographic pool at Prudential Insurance. She left work at the adoption of her first son and committed herself to being a mom and a homemaker.

The family moved to Dallas, Texas, in 1964; then to Chicago, Illinois, in 1967; and back to Dallas in 1969, where they settled into a home she loved for fifty-two years and where she bore her second son. All along, she attended various Southern Baptist and Bible churches, found great consolation in her Christian faith, attended weekly Bible studies until just before her death, and prayed daily for her family and friends.

At her husband’s death, she moved to Saint Louis, Missouri, to be close to her youngest son and his family. She died of renal failure in his home, under the care of hospice.

Esther Lou Scarbrough is survived by her two sons, Mark Steven Scarbrough of Connecticut and Barry Lynn Scarbrough of Missouri, as well as their spouses, Bruce Weinstein and Jennifer Scarbrough. She also left her legacy with her two grandchildren, Bailey and Keaton Scarbrough. May they all live long enough to make her memory a blessing.