Rachel Pfluger Bessent

Rachel Elizabeth Pluger Bessent, age 85, passed away on October 30, 2010. She was born in Austin, Texas on June 14, 1925, to Conrad Gottlieb and Grace Irene Dillingham Pfluger. She spent much of her early married life in Pecos, Texas, San Angelo, Texas and Tucson, Arizona. Rachel, however, lived the majority of her life in Austin, Texas as a single working mother of three.

Rachel retired from the Texas House of Representative Journal Clerk’s Office after many years of service. Prior to that time, she worked for the Texas Department of Public Safety.

Rachel was proud of her Pfluger family’s heritage in Central Texas, and her ancestral ties to England. She enjoyed genealogical research leading her to become a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution and Daughters of the Confederacy.

Rachel enjoyed attending her grandsons’ athletic and school events. Her hobbies included needlework, cousin reunions, Sunday school at Tarrytown Methodist Church, professional baseball and traveling.

Rachel is preceded in death by her parents; her brother, Gene Pfluger; and her eldest son, Jon Bessent. She is survived by her son and daughter-in-law, David and Jean Bessent; her daughter and son-in-law, Jana and Carl Pankratz; her daughter-in-law Merlyn Dychess Bessent; her grandsons, Lenn King and George Pankratz; her nieces, Annemarie Mehlow and Stacy Williamson; her nephew Paul Pfluger, and their families.

The memorial service will be conducted in the Memorial Chapel of Cook Walden Capital Parks Funeral Home at 3:30 p.m., Saturday, November 6, 2010. For those desiring, donations may be made in Rachel’s honor to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center at www.wildflower.org/contribute/.

To share memories with the family, please visit www.cookwaldencapitalparks.com

Arrangements under the direction of Cook-Walden/Capital Parks Funeral Home, Pflugerville, TX.