Margaret Jane McElmurry moved. She lives now in Heaven, which though a lot like Tyler, Texas, is even prettier.

Jane grew up in Jacksonville, Texas, but after high school found her way to Tyler and TJC (Tyler Junior College.) At TJC Jane and her identical twin sister Jean fronted the marching band as majorettes, and were featured leaders of the famous drill team, the Apache Belles. Jane’s life long passion for music and dance was probably never more celebrated than during those heady days at TJC. She and Jean, the talented, Apache Belle dancing twins, became, at least locally, quite renowned.

Soon after TJC Jane met and married RC McElmurry, Sr. And she stayed that way, married to RC McElmurry, Sr, until he went to heaven fifty-two years later. In the interim, Jane became a mom. Daughter Pattie Fennell, and sons Robbie and Ronnie McElmurry survive their mother down here, but daughter Debbie Jones beat Jane to heaven by a few years. That’s all better now. It’s not just better, it’s glorious and wonderful and perfect. Thank you Jesus, for restoration.

And speaking of Jesus, Jane knew Him her whole life. She was a cradle to grave Methodist. (With all the aforementioned dancing, you knew she couldn’t be Baptist, right?) She sang in the choir, taught Sunday School, and all but ran Vacation Bible School. And she made sure that all of her people knew Jesus.

Jane lived out enormous faith and obedience and love by directly, personally, hands-on and without assistance, caring for her invalid mother. For decades.

Jane loved Tyler and energetically served several of the city’s charitable organizations. She was a Girl Scout leader for her daughters’ troops. But even after her daughters were grown and gone, Jane continued to serve the Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas as Camp Counselor and Music Master and Senior Vice President of Whatever Needs Doing. She volunteered as a swim instructor for the East Texas Chapter of the American Red Cross, and ended up running their free-to-all-comers Learn To Swim program. Additionally Jane, through the Red Cross, taught CPR certification courses and led the lifeguard training program.

Jane was blessed not just with children, but with grandchildren and great-grandchildren too. And while she was understandably partial to her own, children, all children, were her joy! She knew instinctively that kids are closest to The Kingdom, and she never missed a chance to step into and absorb as much of that God proximity as she could. If there was a cute baby behind her in the grocery checkout, and to Jane all babies were cute, forget about it. Her basket’s frozen food thawed fully, and even cooked to ready in the Texas sun before Jane’s parking lot games of Coochy Coo and Peak-A-Boo and This Little Piggy , played with someone who only moments before was a complete stranger, concluded.

Jane lived fully. She loved The Lord. In her memory, go to church, or kiss a baby, or give to the Alzheimer’s Association. Or, do all three.

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