Martha Edith Pulley's Obituary
Martha Edith Pulley passed away peacefully in her sleep at 1:00 am on Sunday November 24, 2019, age 98 at The Villages of Dallas, formerly Grace Presbyterian Village, Dallas Texas. It was her time to go and she was ready. Edith was born August 1, 1921 at Big Sandy, Texas, 20 miles Northeast of Tyler in East Texas to farmers Roy Burdine and Stella Riggs. During the Depression, the family moved to the Oak Cliff area of Dallas where her father drove streetcars for the Dallas Transit System and her mother was a housewife raising the 4 children.She attended Lida Hooe Elementary School and graduated from Sunset High School in 1939. With the help of her brothers, she attended and graduated from Abilene Christian College with a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration and Education. During WWII, between semesters at college, she worked part-time in downtown Dallas and her car pool always stopped by Union (railroad) Station to give rides to any soldiers coming home who lived in Oak Cliff. She had gone to grade school and high school with Roderick C. (Rod) Pulley and after a chance meeting at Union Station one evening when Rod was coming home on leave from the war, they were married in Dallas July 3, 1945. She and Rod moved to Florida, where Rod was stationed as a Norden bombsight technician and flight test engineer in the Army Air Corps, until the end of the war, then moved back to Dallas.Edith had two boys, James Thomas born September 5, 1949 and Richard Allan born November 15, 1951, two grandchildren, Eric Thomas and Jessica Anne Pulley and two nephews, Mark and Bruce Riggs. After 6 years of raising the boys, she decided to go to work as a teacher in the Dallas Independent School District (DISD) at Mark Twain Elementary School as a Physical Education and Language Arts teacher, and later as a Civics, English, Spanish, and Texas History teacher at Rosemont Elementary and W.E. Greiner Middle School, all in Oak Cliff. She taught a total of 33 years and earned her Master’s Degree in Education before retiring. She also helped write the Texas History textbook used in the DISD. She helped many disadvantaged students with clothes and school supplies as well as students from troubled families with emotional problems. Several of those students keep in touch with her to this day.Edith was a devout life-long member of the Church of Christ and last attended the North Davis Road congregation in Arlington, Texas. She was a self-taught artist and loved drawing with charcoal and painting with water colors, oils, and acrylics. She enjoyed playing the organ and piano while singing Gospel hymns as her father and mother had done years before. She grew iris flowers and made trips to nurseries all over East Texas with the family looking for new varieties. Her iris bed at the house is healthy and still blooms profusely every spring and summer. Edith also volunteered with Mission Printing editing Christian missionary publications and running the printing press.Edith was preceded in death by her parents Roy B. and Stella Riggs, husband Roderick, brothers Emmet Dean, James Pershing, and Roy B. Jr, Riggs. She is survived by her two sons, James Thomas and Carol of Dallas, TX and Richard and Ina of Anchorage, AK, and grandchildren, Eric Thomas and Jessica Anne Pulley of Dallas, TX. Funeral services will be held at Restland Wildwood Chapel, 13005 Greenville Ave., North Dallas, December 4, 2019. Visitation at 2:00pm, funeral service at 3:00pm, graveside service following the chapel service.
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