Margaret Louise Ballow Adcock

Memorial services for Louise will be held on Tuesday, April 18, 2023 at 2:00 p.m. at First Baptist Church in Tyler under the direction of Stewart Family Funeral Home. Margaret Louise Ballow Adcock was born on April 1, 1926 into the large and loving family of Jessie Mable nee Gibson and Isaac “Ike” Newton Ballow on their farm in Rusk County, in East Texas. She passed from this world surrounded by her loving family on April 12, 2023 in Tyler, Texas having a good death following a long, full life. Hers was an idyllic rural childhood, shadowed only by the death of her father when she was nine years old and the challenges of the Depression. After graduation from Henderson High School, she began her business career during WWII as secretary to the head of the Livingston Shipyard in Orange, Texas. After the war she continued as an executive assistant at Goller Insurance Agency in Henderson. During that time a friend from WWII days introduced her to the love of her life Willie Leroy Adcock. After a long distance courtship between South and East Texas, sometimes with Leroy flying his plane to her family farm, they were married on April 3, 1953 at their little Millville family church. Settling in Bellville, Texas as a homemaker, first a daughter Kathy (1954) and later a son Timothy (1956) rounded out the happy family. Louise devoted her life to her family and her church, volunteering in church, school and community. She taught briefly before integration as the only white teacher in Spicer Elementary School in Bellville. Leroy’s federal career also took them to live in Denton and Decatur, Texas. In 1989, Louise & Leroy settled in Tyler, Texas in retirement and added world travel, time with their large extended families and especially time with their Dallas grandson Dakota in these golden years. Louise is preceded in death by her parents and nine beloved siblings. She is survived by her husband Leroy of 70 years, her two children Kathy and her husband Royce Glenn Smith of Dallas; son Timothy of Houston; her grandson Dakota, his wife Jessica and their two children Xander and Zelda Smith of Rowlett, Texas. In her later years Louise faced the difficulties of Parkinson’s dementia with grace and fortitude. She is remembered for her kindness to strangers, especially underprivileged children whom she welcomed alongside her own children into her home, her impish sense of humor, her love of cooking and impromptu entertaining that made her a gracious hostess, her unique ability to put any and all at ease and bring out the best in them and her memorable pithy turns of phrase or “sayings”. We would like to thank family, friends and neighbors, especially Mrs. Emma Salas who brightened her days. We are humbled by the tender and watchful care of the Oak Hills Terrace staff and nurses. We her family are grateful for her life and celebrate her legacy, by the grace of her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Visitation is scheduled from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. on Monday, April 17, 2023 at Stewart Family Funeral Home, 7525 Old Jacksonville Hwy, in Tyler. For those wishing to make a memoriam, Mercy Ships was a life changing organization she favored. www.mercyships.org

Margaret Louise Ballow Adcock

April 1, 1926 - April 12, 2023