Pauline H. Neblett

1911 - 2011

SHERMAN - Mrs. Pauline H. Neblett, 99, passed away Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2011 at Texas Health Presbyterian-WNJ Medical Center. Funeral services for Pauline Harley Neblett will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 29 in the Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church. Entombment will follow in the Chapel of Memories at Cedarlawn Memorial Park with Stanley Chinn, Michael Hill, Carl Hudson, Welby Pleasant, Larry Boyd, and Dr. Vernon Johnson serving as active pallbearers. Charles Aladdin Searcy, Oliver Wendell Sprott, and A. Gilbert Douglass, Jr. will be honorary pallbearers.

Pauline was born July 16, 1911 in Islandton, S.C. to Alonzo Walter Harley and Elizabeth (Bryant) Harley, who died when Pauline was two years old. Pauline was the last surviving Harley sibling. Also preceding her in death were her father, Alonzo and stepmother, Jessie Rhoena Harley who had raised her from nine years old when she moved from South Carolina to join her Texas family.
The family traveled with her father, a Methodist Minister, moving every couple of years in South and East Texas until her father eventually became District Superintendent and settled in Beaumont. She learned early on from her parents the value of dedication, hard work, and the pursuit of higher education. She graduated from Jack Yates High School in Houston and from Wiley College in Marshall. She married her college sweetheart, Percy W. Neblett and moved to Sherman when Percy accepted the principalship of Fred Douglass High School in 1943.
She received her Master's Degree from Texas Southern University in Houston and taught in the Sherman Public Schools for over 39 years, teaching Business Education and Language Arts at Fred Douglass and Sherman High School. Mrs. Neblett was an outstanding teacher and her award winning newspaper at Fred Douglas was best high school mimeographed newspaper in 1958. Before retiring in 1979, Mrs. Neblett had encouraged hundreds of students and adopted them as her own, inspiring many to become business, church, and civic leaders.
Mrs. Neblett was well known for her church work, particularly as a member of St. James Church and as an associate member of the Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church, both in Sherman. She was a member of the United Methodist Women and had served as secretary of program resources at the North District level. Mrs. Neblett was a 75 year member of the Zeta Phi Beta sorority and belonged to the local chapter when it was active. She held membership in numerous other civic organizations including the Daughters of Diane and the American Association of University Women, receiving its Woman of Achievement Award. She also received the Susan B. Anthony Award for civic leadership. She was on the Library Board when the Sherman Public Library was constructed and was also a member of the League of Women Voters, Bomar Cramer Music Club, Delta Kappa Gamma, and Home Hospice of Grayson County.

Mrs. Neblett was happily married to "P.W." nearly 70 years when he preceded her in death in 2006. Among the family and other loved ones left to remember her are her daughter, Charlotte Neblett Douglass and her husband Gilbert of Washington, D.C.; three nephews, Charles Aladdin Searcy of Ojai, Calif., Oliver Wendell Sprott and his wife Wanda of Beaumont, and Robert Neblett, Jr. of Navasota; seven nieces, Rita Sprott Dukes and her husband Terry of Atlanta, Ga., Lisa R. Taylor and her husband Robert of Mahwah, N.J., Gloria Harley of Pearland, Lillie Jefferson of Houston, Paulette Neblett of Houston, Sandra Moses and Elaine Walker, both of Houston; and a host of other friends and relatives.
The family will receive friends from 6 to 7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 28 at Waldo Funeral Home. The register book can be signed online at waldofuneralhome.com.