Jimmie Lee Barker Anderson, age 92, of Asherton died on Friday, Jan. 23, 2015, at the Uvalde Memorial Hospital. Jimmie Lee was born near Emory, Texas, on Sept. 20, 1922, to James Roy Barker and Margaret Elizabeth Hipp Barker. Jimmie Lee moved to Zavala County with her parents and brother Dale in 1924, traveling by train to the Winter Garden, along with the family’s household goods and livestock. Roy Barker became a successful spinach farmer, and the family helped establish the congregation of the Church of Christ in Crystal City, which met in the Methodist building on Sunday afternoons until a building was obtained. Jimmie Lee, Dale, and sisters Elizabeth and Patricia received their elementary and secondary schooling in Crystal City. Jimmie Lee’s high school business teacher Epsie Belle Thompson inspired her to attend the University of Texas at Austin and major in business. One of the first women to be awarded a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from UT, she graduated in 1944 and returned home to tea at Crystal City High School. Jimmie Lee married James Granger Anderson, Jr., of Asherton in 1947. After living in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Austin, Texas, so that Granger could attend college, Jimmie Lee and Granger returned to Crystal City to the JRS Ranch, where Granger farmed with Roy Barker. During the three years they lived at the JRS, their daughters Margaret and Candace were born. The next 10 years found the Andersons living in Crystal City and Asherton, then Crystal City again; during these years their children Patricia, Granger, and Forrest were born. Jimmie Lee joined the Crystal City High School faculty and taught business subjects throughout the 1960’s there as well as extension courses for the Southwest Texas Junior College. She completed a master’s degree in special education and taught in Asherton and Carrizo Springs before becoming a diagnostician for the Carrizo Springs school district for many years before her retirement in her seventies. Jimmie Lee was a charter member of the Athena Study Club founded in 1948 as a service and cultural organization for young women. She was also a member of Delta Kappa Gamma, a professional organization for women educators. Jimmie Lee is survived by her five children: Margaret Forrest Anderson and husband Bill Crow of San Antonio; Candace Anderson of Asherton; Patricia Rasor and husband Carl of Uvalde; Granger Anderson and wife Patrice of Houston; and Forrest Anderson and wife Susan of Uvalde. Her grandchildren are Forrest Nicole Anderson Myane, Algera Lee Anderson, John Granger Anderson, and James Hunter Anderson. She is also survived by her nieces Annabelle Lee Attensil Steed of Conroe; Dr. Forrest Hemphill Yanke of Panama City, Florida; Harriet Hemphill of Providence, Rhode Island; by her nephew, Robert Witherspoon Hemphill of Columbia, South Carolina; and by eight great-nieces and nephews and many cousins. Jimmie Lee was preceded in death by her parents, her husband, and her brother and sisters. Funeral services were held on Saturday, Jan. 31, 2015, at the First methodist Church in Crystal City. Pallbearers were Jon Box, Dick Dobie, Steven Kennedy, Edward Miranda, Dudley Smith, Joe Taylor, Roy Villarreal, and Bobby Ward. Honorary pallbearers were Walter Blackwell, Bodie Davidson, Gonzalo Lafuente, Bobby McVoy, Reed Pegues, Frank Rutledge, Jon Taylor, Howard Willmon, and the members of the Athena Study Club. She was buried in Edgewood Cemetery next to her husband and surrounded by her parents and brother, both sets of her grandparents, several of her aunts and uncles, and many of her 45 first cousins. Memorials in honor of Jimmie Lee Anderson may be made to the Dimmit County Public Library, 200 North 9th Street, Carrizo Springs, Texas 78834.
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