Ethel Elizabeth Renner Grimes' Obituary
Ethel Elizabeth Renner Grimes stepped into the arms of Jesus August 12, 2021 at 103 years 5 months and 30 days.
Services will be 10:00 AM Tuesday, August 17, 2021 in the First Baptist Church in Mobeetie with Rev. Travis Leamon, officiating. Burial will follow in Wheeler Cemetery.
Viewing will be held Monday at the funeral home.
Arrangements are by Robertson Funeral Directors of Wheeler.
She was born February 13, 1918 west of Wheeler Texas to Myrtle Allred Renner and John William Renner. She was the oldest of three siblings. She was born in her Grandparents home, the same home she lived in until she was 102 years old.
She was raised on a farm in Gray County at Laketon and went to school in one room schoolhouses.
At age 18 in 1936 she came to Wheeler County to live with her aunt. At first they didn’t own a vehicle and had to walk everywhere.
The next year Ethel’s aunt bought a car and Ethel learned to drive.
Ethel and her aunt raised chickens, sold eggs, milked cows and sold cream, and sold produce from their garden. Ethel also worked as a housekeeper and babysitter for neighbors.
WWII was a challenging time for Ethel and her aunt. All the men were serving in the war effort, there was no hired hands available. These two women had to do all the work themselves. One summer they hauled and stacked 1200 square bales of hay by themselves with a mule team.
Ethel married Francis Marion (F.M.) Grimes in 1951 at the age of 33. Her only child was born in December of 1957. She and F.M. ranched west of Wheeler on the same property her Allred grandparents owned.
Ethel was very resourceful and could do anything. She was an accomplished seamstress, quilter, and loved to crochet. She produced hundreds of handmade quilts in her lifetime. She gave quilts to most of her family. She was also a wonderful cook, and avid gardner.
Ethel could build fence or nail the tin down on the barn, whatever needed doing! She was active in church and taught Sunday School for 50 years starting with the little boys class at First Baptist Church Mobeetie when she was still single. She stopped teaching because of her eyesight. She loved the Lord, her family, her home and her cats.
Ethel was living in Wheeler Nursing and Rehab at the time of her death. One of her Sunday School “boys” also lives there. One day they were in rehab together and she took to opportunity to lecture him about doing his exercises.
Ethel is an example of a life well lived. She enjoyed the uncomplicated things of life like gardening, yard work, feeding cattle, petting her cats and spending time with her family. Her Great Grandkids were the lights of her life.
She was a Christian and advised everyone to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, the one true God and the only way to heaven!
Ethel was blessed to have two Granddaughters and four Great Grandchildren. Words cannot express how much she will be missed! Ethel acquired a lot of wisdom in 103 years, and exemplified Proverbs 31; “a woman that fears the Lord shall be praised.”
She was preceded in death by her parents, her brother and sister, and her husband.
Survivors include a Daughter , Elizabeth Grimes McDowell and Husband Pat, two Granddaughters Katie Hathaway and husband Wes, Savanna Jahnel and husband Kyle, three great grandsons, Logan Hathaway, Clancy Jahnel, and Briggs Jahnel and one great granddaughter Sidney Hathaway.
The family would like to thank the amazing CNAs and nurses at Wheeler Nursing and Rehab in Wheeler for the wonderful care they gave our Mom and Grandmother. They would also like to thank BSA Hospice of the Southwest.
In lieu of flowers the family suggests memorials to the Wheeler Historical Museum 105 South Alan L. Bean Blvd, Wheeler, Tx 79096
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