Martha Cary Boyd

A memorial service for Martha Cary Boyd, 80, of Tyler will be held on Saturday, May 4, 2019 at 2:00 p.m. in the Stewart Family Funeral Home Chapel with Dr. Chris Pulliam officiating. Mrs. Boyd passed away Tuesday, April 23, 2019 in Tyler surrounded in a circle of love by family and friends both near and far. She was born August 18, 1938 in Lufkin to John Holland Hopkins and Gladys Lee Vaughn Hopkins. Martha was a member of First Christian Church of Tyler. She graduated from Lufkin High School, Class of 1956, and went on to achieve her bachelor’s degree and teacher’s certificate from Stephen F. Austin University. She taught elementary school for 27 years, 14 years in the Lufkin Independent School District, 13 in Neches Independent Schools. Martha loved teaching and felt it her life’s calling, a calling she heard at the tender age of 8, inspired by her third grade teacher, whose loving example she felt compelled to follow. She went on to teach elementary school, mostly third grade, just as she had dreamed. She took great pleasure in children and deep satisfaction in fostering a love of reading in young children, in particular. She enjoyed her colleagues immensely and made deep and lasting friendships with those with whom she taught. In retirement, she continued to find ways to exercise her passion for people and teaching, volunteering to teach English as a Second Language and reading to first graders in area schools. She also volunteered for the local food pantry and was active and involved in her church community. She and husband Tim have made friends easily wherever they have found themselves; as a result, our whole family is encircled by a network of loyal and steadfast friends at this difficult time. Martha was a devoted wife, mother, aunt, grandmother, and, very recently, great-grandmother. She demonstrated her love most readily and easily in the kitchen, a largely self-taught artist of classic southern cuisine. Chicken and dumplings, turnip greens, cornbread, and pinto beans, fried chicken, chocolate pie, chocolate cake, peach cobbler. To step into Nanny’s kitchen was to experience an aroma therapy that made everything alright. We miss her terribly but recognize her now in the closeness we feel as a nuclear and extended family and in the even wider family of friends her lovely and lively spirit brought together. Martha was preceded in death by her mother, Gladys Hopkins and her father, John Hopkins, and she is survived by her loving family including her husband of 58 years, Timothy Terrell Boyd, Jr; daughter, Cheryl Boyd Everett; son-in-law, Doug Everett; granddaughter, Katy Everett Gentry; Katy’s husband, Kevin Gentry and their daughter (Martha’s first great- grandbaby), Avery Grace Gentry; also daughter, Vicki Boyd; daughter-in-law, Anna Kay Vorsteg; grandson, John Sovann Vorsteg Boyd; and granddaughter, Tevy Vorsteg Boyd. She is also survived by her beloved sister, Mellie Ann Burke and her family, husband, James Burke; sons, Jimmy and Derek Burke; and daughter, Lisa Burke. Honorary pallbearers will be Sovann Boyd, Kevin Gentry, and Doug Everett. Visitation is scheduled from 1:00 - 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, May 4, 2019 at Stewart Family Funeral Home, 7525 Old Jacksonville Highway, in Tyler. The family wishes to thank Heart to Heart Hospice of Tyler for making it possible for Mom to pass peacefully at home and the community of First Christian Church for holding Mom and Dad in such warm embrace at this most difficult time in our lives. If desired, memorials may be made to First Christian Church, 4202 S. Broadway Ave, Tyler, TX 75701, www.fcctyler.org

Martha Cary Boyd

August 18, 1938 - April 23, 2019