- Date Of Birth: December 10, 1925
- Date Of Death: October 2, 2012
- State: Texas
Phoebe Belle Smith Bond was born in Fayetteville, AR on December 10, 1925, but as she said, she came to Texas as soon as she could at about age 3. Her parents were Lucy Hitch Smith and Hollis L. Smith. They were teachers in Karnes City, Texas until Phoebe graduated from high school in 1943. She had two sisters, Pauline Blacklock of Corpus Christi and Margaret Cox of Karnes City.
Margaret preceded her in death in 2008. Phoebe was a student at the University of Texas where she studied Biology and then received a degree at Corpus Christi University in 1962. In 1947 she married Jesse Hill Bond, an employee of Humble Oil and Refining Co. of Corpus Christi and they established a home at Flour Bluff and raised four children there, near the Laguna Madre, where the children played happily enjoying all the beaches of Padre Island. Phoebe took all the oceanography courses at UCC and received her teaching certificate. She then went to North Texas State University to earn a Master’s degree in Library Science in 1968.
Her first job as a librarian was at the brand new Martin Jr. High School in Corpus Christi in 1970 with a new degree and a library that had had the roof ripped off by Hurricane Celia. She remained in that job for 24 years and was retired in 1992. After 41 years of marriage, Jesse passed away in 1988 and is buried in Corpus Christi where Phoebe will be laid to rest. Phoebe’s life-long interests were all things Biological, especially bird watching, wild flowers, her children, reading, genealogy (she was a member of D.A.R., Colonial Dames of the 17th C., Gone to Texas Pioneer Society, East Bell County Genealogical Society). She grew up with music and church and was active in choirs throughout her life. Phoebe joined her daughter, Belinda and her family in Killeen, then Belton, when she realized she did not have to wait out hurricanes in Corpus Christi after her retirement, and she and Belinda’s family built a house on Stillhouse Hollow Lake with a mother-in-law wing.
Phoebe is survived by her sister, Pauline, of Corpus Christi; five nephews and nieces; four children: Hollis Bond of Austin, his wife, Irene, and their daughter, Kirsten; Stanley Bond of Corpus Christi and wife, Maureen and two sons, Dan and Tom; Tom’s wife Roz and son Tristan. Carolyn Schneider, her husband Michael, of Hood River, OR and daughter, Jessica, of Belton; Belinda Baker and her husband, Bob, of Belton, their two children, Robert and wife Callie, their children, Reese, Reagan and Case, of Temple; and Jennifer Richards and her son Trace, of Nolanville.
She has been living in The Meridian Retirement Home in Temple for several years because of ill health, but has remained a working librarian at the Meridian. She has been a member of 1st Presbyterian Church in Belton for a number of years, singing in the choir with her daughter for most of that time.
