- Date Of Birth: August 16, 1931
- Date Of Death: April 13, 2017
- State: Texas
Zilpha Lee Stephens, August 16, 1931 – April 13, 2017.
Zilpha was born in Dallas, TX, on August 16, 1931, to James Henry “Jim” Watson and Beaula May [Tucker] Watson. She passed from this life on April 13, 2017.
She has said, “I accepted Jesus as my Savior when I was 12 years old. I quit school at the age of 15 and went to work to help with family finances. I worked mostly at Walgreen’s stores as a cook, soda jerking and assistant manager of that department.”
Zilpha married William A. “Steve” Stephens on July 2, 1950 in Dallas, TX. After having five children, she decided that she needed to finish her education. She was tutored for her high school diploma by a retired professor in Hutchins. He took her to Navarro Junior College in Corsicana and helped her enroll. She drove a school bus for that college, to help pay her tuition. She later attended Del Mar in Corpus Christi, after moving their family to Portland, and then attended Mary Hardin Baylor when they moved to Belton.
They lived in Dallas County for fifteen years, before moving to Portland, Texas in 1965, then to Bell County in 1967, as Steve progressed in his jobs in the Title Insurance business. They moved from Belton to Moffat in 1975, where they built their own home that Steve had designed.
Zilpha worked in the school systems as a substitute Teacher and as a Teacher’s Aid in both Belton ISD and in Moffat. She was working at the Moffat School when it was closed permanently. She then worked for a few years at the Day Care at the First Baptist Church in Belton, where many of her small charges called her “Granny” like her own grandchildren.
She was active for many year in the Moffat First Baptist Church, after she and Steve moved to Moffat. She served as a Sunday School teacher, helped with summer Bible School classes, and served as Hostess of the Bereavement Committee, hosting and serving the families dinners after funerals.
She also helped Steve in the research on the Moffat Cemetery and with compiling the inventory of the cemetery, walking the cemetery over and over again, for many, many years, gathering information from the visible headstones and monuments there.
Zilpha also considered her main job was always that of a wife, mother and homemaker for her family, with these other things coming second. She was always available to her family and friends in their time of need, loving and caring those those who became ill, and even taking them into her home when the need arose.
Zilpha loved to sing for the Lord. She went with Sonny & Susie to nursing homes on Sunday afternoons for many years, to lead the singing for patients there, and Sonny shared the Gospel. This was an important calling for her. She still remembered her favorite hymns and would sing with her family when they visited her, after she was confined to the nursing home herself, even when she could no longer recall the names of her very best friends. She wanted everyone to know her Lord and Savior as she did.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Steve, her parents, and two brothers, Joe Watson and Wayne Watson. Survivors include one sister, Zela May Holt of Eustace, TX; two sons, Sonny Stephens & wife Susie of Portland, TX, and Jim Stephens & wife Angela of Temple, TX; and three daughters, Ruth Beck & husband Gary of Temple, TX, Mary Garcia & husband Dale of Troy, TX, and Ann Whetmore of Placerville, CA; 15 grandchildren, 22 great-grandchildren and innumerable nieces, nephews and cousins.
She has requested memorials to the Moffat Cemetery Association, in lieu of flowers.
