Elvira Melchor (Vera) Brabson

Elvira (Vera) Melchor Brabson went to be with the Lord on April 9, 2016 at the age of 95. She was born in Waelder, Texas on December 20, 1920 to the late Juan Melchor and Maria Apolinar Euresti Melchor.

Elvira's strong values and fervent Catholic faith were given to her by her parents and her grandparents, Jorge and Cesaria Melchor. Before a Catholic Church was built in Waelder, Sunday masses were held in the very house where she was born on Old Hwy 90. As a teenager, she enjoyed singing in the church choir.

She was a graduate of Waelder High School and moved to San Antonio at the beginning of WWII. She became employed as a clerk typist at the cost accounting office of the Normolye Quarter Master Depot. After two years, she decided to take the examination for Spanish translators and censors at the Office of Censorship and obtained a job in the Post Office Federal Building where she read and censored all incoming and outgoing mail written in Spanish.

At the end of the war, censorship was immediately abolished. She then transferred to work as a secretary in the X-Ray office in the old hospital building at Fort Sam Houston in Brooke Army Medical Center. Later, Elvira obtained a transfer with a promotion to work as a secretary in the inspection office of the engine repair section at Kelly AFB where she met and married the late Robert Brabson.

During the Berlin Airlift in 1948, Elvira and her husband, found themselves working again six days a week. She ended her civil service career to stay home for 14 years to take care of her home and family. She truly enjoyed this period of her life. She took great joy in caring for her three children and participating in all the events of their childhood. She joined the work force again after the youngest child started school. She wanted to spend as much time as possible with her children, so she applied for a job with the San Antonio Independent School District and worked as a secretary at Grabner and Hawthorne Elementary Schools and as a bookkeeper at Wheatley High School. She retired after 22 years of service.

Elvira enjoyed her morning walks along the San Antonio Riverwalk, gardening, writing in her numerous journals and traveling. Even a shipwreck did not deter her from numerous cruises. She also enjoyed road trips with her children. She was a member of Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Helotes, Texas and a member of the Altar Society.

She was preceded in death by her sisters, Juanita Mastricola, Josefita Gutierrez, Anita Euresti and brothers, Jose Campos, Jose Melchor and Faustino Melchor.

Elvira is survived by her daughters, Dolores Brabson and Rita Sellers; son Robert Brabson, Jr. all of San Antonio; her granddaughter, Frances Sellers of San Antonio; grandson, John Anthony Sellers of San Diego, CA; brothers, Ruben Melchor and wife, Norma of San Antonio, Elias Melchor of Oklahoma City, OK and David Melchor and wife, Louise of Tacoma, WA and numerous nieces, nephews and cousins.

Visitation will be held on Thursday, April 14, 2016 from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. with a Rosary at 7:00 p.m. at Porter Loring Mortuary on McCullough Ave.

A final visitation will be held from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. on Friday, April 15, 2016 at Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church, 13715 Riggs Road, Helotes, TX., with a Funeral Mass to begin at 11:00 a.m.

Interment will follow at Mission Burial Park North.

In lieu of flower, contributions can be made to the American Heart Association, 8415Wurzbach Road, San Antonio, TX 78229 or The Alzheimer's Association, 7400 Louis Pasteur, Ste. #200, San Antonio, TX 78229