Elaine Holt

Elaine (Mueller) Holt, 92, of Oklahoma and formerly of Beeville, Texas, died Thursday, July 14, 2022.

Elaine was born in Taft, Texas on August 9, 1929 to the late Albert and Lois (Whitworth) Mueller. She attended Tynan school for 10 years and graduated from Mathis High School in 1946. After graduation, she attended Draughon's Business College, San Antonio, Texas.

She was employed as a secretary in San Antonio and met her future husband, Arthur Guy “A.G.” Holt, while he was stationed at Lackland Air Force Base. They were married October 3, 1947, in Seguin, Texas and lived in San Antonio and Wichita Falls, Texas, while he completed his three years in the Air Force.

After his discharge, they lived in Beeville where he began a career in road construction, and they lived in many Texas cities until 1957 when they returned to Beeville. They built their home in 1958 on land inherited from her Grandfather, Eilert Mueller.

Elaine continued doing secretarial work for A.G. while he was self-employed and she had become the mother of Guy, Cheryl and Denise. In 1968, she became a school secretary at A.C. Jones High School until 1972 when they moved to Okarche, Oklahoma.

While living in Oklahoma, she was able to be a full-time homemaker and loved attending many craft classes and being active in her church. She was a member of a Home Demonstration Club and entered county as well as state fairs winning ribbons.

In 1978, they returned to Beeville and resumed living in their ranch home on FM 1349. They became active members of First Baptist Church and this is where the three children made their profession of faith.

Elaine became an active member of the Republican Women's Club. She joined the Eastern Star, Chapter 422 and became very interested in the Bee County Historical Society.

Elaine became aware of the immediate need of funds for the McClanahan House. She learned of a contest sponsored by the Doral Tobacco Company. There was a category that the oldest business house seemed to fit. Elaine bought a membership for A.G. as she was a non-smoker. Therefore, she wrote a story pointing out all of the needs of this run-down building and sent it off to the Doral Company, signing it in A.G.'s name. Time slowly passed, however, a letter finally arrived saying her story had won the category that she had entered and the prize was $2,000. She was so excited to turn the check over to the group and they posed for a picture on the porch of the McClanahan House.

Another accomplishment that Elaine was so proud of was sorting through a bunch of pictures that she and her mother had identified. Then Elaine gave many of the pictures to various relatives as she believed they would care for them. The next step was taking 50 years of their pictures and creating albums around different categories.

Elaine joined a small group of women led by Thelma Smith and wrote stories over a 10-year period and published her stories and called them, “Mom's Stories.” In 2017 at the urging of her children and grandchildren, she also added some stories in relation to A.G. Elaine also had a story published in the December/January 2012 issue of the Reminisce magazine. The title was "Outsmarting the Super Sleuth."

Elaine and A.G. were married 68 years before he passed away on March 28, 2016. Their children are Arthur Guy Holt, Jr., Cheryl and her husband Dan Francis, and Denise and her husband Dale Oppel. They were also blessed with five grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

Visitation will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday, July 21, at Galloway & Sons Funeral Home in Beeville.

The funeral service will be conducted at 10 a.m. Friday, July 22, at Galloway & Sons Funeral Home.

Burial will follow in the Glenwood Cemetery.

Pallbearers will be her grandchildren, Austin Francis, Chris Francis, Jennifer Brady, Kennt Brady, Jon Oppel and Lara Schoen.

Honorary pallbearers will be the Eastern Star ladies.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Beeville Cemetery Association, P.O. Box 1212, Beeville, TX 78104 or to the Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children, P.O. Box 199300, Dallas, TX 75219-9842.