Bobbie Louise Howell Bruton

Bobbie Louise Bruton was one of the kindest persons I've ever met. Her strong love for her husband, children, grandchildren and her home and church were so visible that an observer could never have any doubts about the content of her character or the origin of the beauty that emanated from every act of kindness and every sacrifice to self. She was born Bobbie Howell August 2, 1929 in Coolidge, Texas and grew up in Manchester, Texas which sits side by side with the Houston ship channel. Bobbie married at the tender age of barely17 to the love of her life, Billy Ray Bruton, age 21, while WWII was still raging. They had known each other a long time by then. The often-repeated tale is that when she was still a young girl she was out flying her kite when he shot it down with his BB gun. When I would hear the retelling of the story, each of the main characters would grin and chime in at different points in the telling so that it became a collaborative effort, and I would begin to see that the recounting of it was a loving ritual in which they were really telling it to each other, as if to say, "Do you remember, darling, how it was with us in the beginning?", and in which the supposed audience was relegated to collateral spectators. The electricity which sparked between them was still evident into their eighties. The solid foundation of their enduring relationship was undoubtedly their mutual devotion to our Lord, but the building blocks of the relationship were not as beautiful: things like the sorrow of being unable to carry an unborn child to term; the hardship of trying to live on almost no income while in Bible college; and the disappointment of having to set aside a personal dream for the good of the family. Out of those circumstances rose a great thing: a yearning to strive together as one to improve their situation, and an ability to handle gracefully the worldly success that followed later. And the Father of Lights, from whom every good and perfect gift comes down, supplied all their hopes: through the gift of adoption, children and grandchildren; from hardship to corporate success and more comfortable circumstances, and due to world travel for business, the opportunity to reach far more people for Christ than Billy ever would have by standing in a pulpit. Bobbie and Billy were so yoked together by mutual love and respect that they were able to accomplish something together, but by themselves, that blows me away. They literally built by hand their own first house. And the love which indwelled there, as well as in all their subsequent houses, made it a home. She was a resident of Longview for 13 years, and after a brief sojourn in Brazil and Florida, returned to the Pine Tree area where she lived 38 more years, until her death. Bobbie follows her husband, Billy Bruton, and her parents to heaven. She leaves behind her brother, Jack Howell, her sisters, Clarita Hayes and Beth Johnson, her son, Rex Bruton, her daughter, Kathy Stauss, eight grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. There will be a visitation for Bobbie at Rader Funeral Home, 1617 Judson Rd., on Friday, December 14, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. There will be a private interment at the mausoleum of Lakeview Memorial Gardens, Longview Texas, Saturday, December 15, followed by a memorial service at Calvary Baptist Church, Pine Tree, Texas at 2:00 p.m.

Bobbie Louise Howell Bruton

August 2, 1929 - December 12, 2012