Owen Rachel Booker Graves

Owen Rachel Booker Graves, 94, of Sharp, Texas, died on March 2, 2017. She was born in Ripley, Miss., on March 27, 1922, to Marie Reaves and Owen Thomas Booker. She was raised in Memphis, Tennessee. During World War II she worked as a draftsman for the US Army Corps of Engineers, preparing topographical maps and navigational charts of the Mississippi River.

In 1944 she married Capt. Rufus John Graves, then stationed in Memphis as a pilot with the US Army Air Corps, Air Transport Command. After the war ended, the couple settled in Sharp where they farmed and ranched.

Owen Rachel was a leader in the Sharp community. She was a founding member of the Sharp Preservation Society, Lilac Cemetery Association and Sharp Hobby Club. She was an active member of the Milam County Historical Commission and played a key role in orchestrating a thorough inventory of Milam County’s cemeteries, indexing the names of the interred, and codifying relevant information from their markers. Numerous Texas Historical Markers around Milam County are the result of her research, including markers for the Sharp community, the Lilac community, the Lilac Cemetery, and the grave of early Texas settler, William Carroll Sypert, in the Davilla Cemetery. Author of “A History of the Lilac Community” and “A History of the Lilac Cemetery,” she often served as a resource for other researchers. A talented artist, she frequently donated original oil paintings, pen-and-ink drawings, quilts and other works to raise funds for her favorite causes and community projects.

Many who attended Rockdale Junior High School remember "Mrs. Graves" as the librarian who introduced and applied modern cataloging methodology to upgrade the school’s library during the 1960s and 70s.

A member of Meadowbrook Baptist Church, she also attended the Sharp Presbyterian Church in later years.

Owen Rachel Graves’ life was a beautiful tapestry, stitched with love and purpose. The meals she prepared for family gatherings and holidays, the bounty of vegetables and flowers in her garden, the delicate strokes of her paintings, the volumes of genealogy and photos she painstakingly curated, and the hand-sewn gifts for her family will always be remembered by her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, whom she loved beyond measure.

She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband; her brother, David Booker; and her sisters, Edith Booker Miller and Lucille Booker Crawford.

Owen Rachel is survived by her children: Penelope Graves Redington, John Randall Graves, and Stanley Owen Graves and wife, Diana. She is survived by four grandchildren: Rachel Redington Werner and husband, Eric; Towne Redington Williams and husband, John; John Graves Redington and wife, Christine; and Owen Winton Sharp Graves. She is also survived by 10 great-grandchildren: Gibson and Evan Werner; Carter, John, Winton, and Penelope Williams; Patience and Hope Adcock; Garrett Cook and Rufus Redington. Several nieces and nephews also survive her. 

Visitation will take place Thursday, March 9, from 5-7 p.m, at Phillips & Luckey Funeral Home, 1041 W. US Highway 79 in Rockdale. A graveside service will be held Friday, March 10, at 10 a.m., at the Lilac Cemetery, located at the intersection of North FM 487 and FM 3061, in Lilac.

Pallbearers will be William H. Graves, Robert C. Graves, James McQuary, Todd C. Stauffer, Eric R. Werner and John T. Williams.

Donations in remembrance may be made to the Lilac Cemetery Association, Inc., 1000 Liberty Park Dr., #402, Austin, TX, 78746.