Emma Gene (Seale) Gentry, daughter of Adren Ford Seale and Roberta Walther, granddaughter of…I should stop there because it is a very long list – dating back to the 1500’s – that was thoroughly researched during her 50 year hobby of genealogy. And we are all blessed to have that record of where we came from, a record that binds together many of the people who are here today. And she meticulously wrote down what she learned – in beautiful, completely legible cursive script – on as many as 200,000 three by five cards. And in the four genealogy books she published

She told me once that families don’t have plots until you look backward to see where they’ve been. And her family has been to a lot of places.

From Alsace and colonial Tennessee, to rural Louisiana and central Texas. And when you read the book she published about the Walther Family, you will discover a poignant and very personal look at life as is used to be for many of those who are part of that family tree. A life filled with struggle, curiosity, accomplishment, wonderment, kinship and love.

Emma Gene was a healer of wounds. With her kind and thoughtful words.

Or with band aids and mecuricome.

She also healed socks that had holes in them.

And she healed blue jeans that had holes in the knees.
And grass stains. Always grass stains. She made them go away.

And she dried off tired and cold kids after an afternoon of swimming at Deep Eddy Pool.

She managed a household dependent on a clothes line and safety pins. And she knew that wet tennis shoes could be dried overnight in the water heater closet.

She prepared family meals at least twice a day. Walter Cronkite was frequently an invited guest at dinner. And don’t forget the sack lunches, and bus money. And carpool rides and birthday parties and dancing lessons. And 50 cents to buy knothole tickets for Texas football games. And Cub Scouts and Girl Scouts. Boy Scouts too. And all the kids she carpooled to Casis, O’ Henry and Austin High School.

She played the piano and made clothing for her children and family members. And if you were interested, you could stand by her sewing table and learn not just how to sew, but to identify different fabrics and how to use them. And how can I forget the sound of her sewing scissors?
You can still hear them if you listen closely…

But she just didn’t sew clothing, she also made art. Art that will last many lifetimes. There were needlepoint Christmas stockings and wall hangings, and the covers for interesting and decorative pillows. And then there were the quilts. You never saw so many hand stitched quilts for the people in her life. In fact, many of us here today were the recipients of multiple quilts.

She parented her three children and well as parenting others when there was a need. And she loved all these people and I think they knew it then and they will remember that love for the rest of their lives. This is especially true of her seven grandchildren, all of whom are here today. In fact she cared so much for her grandchildren that she took the pictures of her own children off the piano and replaced them with our kids.

And speaking of photos, she began visually recording the people in her life as far back as 1939 with her camera. And she did it with a sense of energy and organization that foretold the work she would later do with her genealogical research. She took pictures of everybody she was related to or befriended, and painstakingly mounted them in photo albums. And she identified everyone by name and date. If you ever had a birthday party, participated in a school function, got baptized, became friends with one of her children, or innocently ventured into the yard at 3311 Clearview no matter what the reason, we probably have a photographic record of that event.

She attended Texas Women’s University during the Great Depression and earned a degree in fashion and clothing design.

And that was a singular accomplishment that I did not fully appreciate until I matured and began to fully understand the magnitude of the Great Depression and the difficulties that our country faced during those years.

And she used that education for the rest of her life although she never worked outside the home.

Who will correct our grammar now? Who will correct my attempts at speaking French words?
Who will hear the cry of a wounded son from a hospital bed in a foreign land? Or a sick child in need of aspirin or a bowl of tomato soup? Who will console a broken heart? Who will play dominoes with her grandchildren?

She and my father Herb joined All Saints’ Church in the late 1940’s as best I can tell. And in addition to this being a house of worship for those of the Episcopal faith, All Saints’ was also part of the social life of the Gentry family. She and my father made many friends here and they both served the church in a variety of voluntary roles over the next 50 years.

And my father was in love with Emma Gene. In fact, they wrote hundreds of love letters and saved every one. My father once wrote a short essay on the five people he would meet in heaven. In addition to his immediate family, the fifth person he would meet would be a pretty brown-eyed girl in his high school whom he started dating in his senior year. She was a year younger and they vowed to live together until they were 99 and 100.

We celebrate your life today Emma Gene and the many gifts and memories that you have left with us. As my father told me many times, you need to collect a lot of good memories in your life. I know I did. And I believe with all my heart that my mother, otherwise known as Emma Gene, Auntie Em, Domino Grandma, and Mee Maw is directly responsible for creating many good memories, especially for her beloved grandchildren Karen, Steve, Paul, Mark, Richard, Mary and John.

Je t’aime maman. Merci de m’aimer aussi.

I love you mother. Thank you for loving me also.

Au nom du Père, du Fils et du Saint-Esprit. Amen.

In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

Amen

-Rick Gentry

Emma Gene (Seale) Gentry
and the people in her life