Felicia Goebel Elliott

FELICIA DORIS GOEBEL ELLIOTT died June 21, 2025 at the age of 97. She was born on the family farm in Lubbock County, TX on January 30, 1928 to Felix and Dora Varnhagen Goebel where she was raised with an older brother, a younger brother and younger sister.

Education: Her mother was a former school teacher in San Marcos. Besides being a farmer, her father was on the school board of the rural school system, which meant that she started school in the 2nd grade and graduated from New Deal Rural High School in 1944 after the 11th grade at the age of 16. She didn’t want to marry a farmer, so she left the farm and went to college at the University of Texas at Austin. Felicia lived in a boarding house. She worked for the university by grading papers for a math class and afterwards took the same class for credit! She graduated from the University of Texas in 1947 at the age of 19 with a Bachelor's degree in Math. She was going to teach, but Humble Oil & Refining offered her a job and she moved to Houston. At that point, her dad said that he knew she would never come back to the farm area where she grew up.

Work Life: When Felicia began her Humble Oil career in 1947, she worked as a clerk in the Petroleum Engineering Production Department. In 1953, she was offered a promotion to be a secretary in the Humble Pipeline Department, secretary to the President of Humble Pipeline. Returning from maternity leave in 1956, she was offered a clerical job back in Petroleum Engineering, working with engineers whose job was to help design equipment to build platforms offshore to withstand the force of waves in water deeper than had been done before. She returned to the same job after maternity leave in 1960 and continued to work with “wave forces” until 1963. When the 45-story skyscraper Humble Oil Building opened in downtown Houston in 1963, Felicia moved to the Employee Relations Department, Benefit Planning Section (Humble Oil became Exxon in 1973) and continued there as a benefits analyst until retirement in 1986.

Family Life: Felicia married Merle L. Elliott in 1951 and continued to work for Humble Oil. Daughter Jean Ann was born in 1955 and daughter Jo Linda was born in 1959. After retirement from Exxon in 1986, Felicia and Merle spent time with children and grandchildren. They joined Meadowbrook Mavericks Square Dance Club. They traveled, eventually visiting all of the 254 counties in Texas, all of the 50 United States, and some European countries. They were members of Glenbrook Methodist Church and Covenant United Methodist Church. Felicia continued a lifelong friendship with her college roommates – Hazel, Tommie, and Ruth – and their spouses.

Merle died in 2001 and Felicia continued to live in their home in southeast Houston where they had moved in 1967. Hurricane Harvey flooded her home in August 2017 and she moved to The Village of River Oaks for Independent Living, which is only 1 ½ miles from the location of the rooming house where she lived in 1947 when she first moved to Houston.

Felicia was preceded in death by her parents, twin baby sister, husband Merle, infant grandson Steven Elliott Hardesty, older brother Rodney Goebel and his wife Carolyn, younger brother Ben Frank Goebel, and younger sister Ino Marie Collins and her husband Bobby Collins. She is survived by daughters Jean Ann Hardesty (husband Robert), Jo Linda Papadakis (husband Peter), 3 grandchildren and 4 great-grandchildren and several nieces and nephews.

In lieu of flowers, the family request that memorials be sent to the charity of your choice.