Verna Mae Collier

Verna Mae Collier was born in Powell, Texas to Alvin Thomas Winkler and Alice Ione (Day) Winkler on October 31, 1927. Her aunt, Ida Mae (Day) Dodd, attended her birth. Soon after her birth, the family moved. During her childhood, Verna lived in Mexia (in Limestone County, Texas), Carlyle Texas, and Fairfield (in Freestone County, Texas). They lived in several small communities in Freestone County.
Alvin Winkler worked most of his life as a ranch hand. In 1938, Mrs. Collier's father started working for the Hill Cattle Company in Fairfield so that he could attend his wife who was very ill with cancer. Alice Winkler died in 1938 leaving the five children Alva (age 13), Clara Marie (age 12), Verna (age 10), Alvin Jr. (age 7), and Clayton (age 3 months). After her death, the household consisted of Alvin, his mother Melvina Winkler who was a blind widow, and the five children.
Verna Collier worked diligently to help with household chores, keep up with her school work all while working at Opal Loper's Cafe. She ran home from school each day during study hall to do work at home. She was highly intelligent, but the constant work was taking a toll on her health to the extent that the family physician told her to either stop working her job or drop out of school. Her income was needed by the family, so she made the difficult choice to leave school, a choice she lamented for most of her life. She celebrated when her youngest brother graduated from high school, the first family member to graduate. When Janie and Kathy were in elementary school, Verna and some members of a women's softball team who had not graduated from high school asked permission from the high school principle in Iraan to participate in classes at the high school. They were given permission and she worked diligently on school work again, taking bookkeeping and typing the year I was in fourth grade. She then passed her GED after I was married and took a few college courses at Odessa College.
In 1948, Verna married Ralph Moore from Milford, Texas and later gave birth to two daughters, Kathryn Ann and Janie Sue. The couple moved eleven times the first year they were married. Several times during that year, they lived with Ralph's brothers and their wives, in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area or the Houston area. In 1952, the family moved to Odessa, Texas, and Ralph went to work in the oil fields. The family was transferred many times in West Texas and Southeastern New Mexico before finally settling in Odessa. Their two daughters graduated from high school and went to college. In 1972, Ralph died as a result of an oil field accident, leaving Verna a widow at age 45. She continued as a widow for about six years.
In 1979, Verna married LeRoy Collier who had two grown children, Roy Dale Collier and Sharon (Collier) Ellis. LeRoy and Verna worked for different branches of El Paso Products when they married. After living in Odessa, they moved to a farm in Gardendale where they grew a pecan orchard and a grape vineyard as well as prolific vegetable gardens. Verna took produce to both the Odessa and Midland farmers' markets.
Verna Collier died after a long illness on Wednesday, July 10, 2024 at Medical Center Hospital in Odessa, Texas. She is survived by her daughters Kathryn Ann Dane and husband Timothy Larry Dane of Lubbock, Texas, and Janie Sue Stevens and husband Ken Stevens of Odessa, Texas; Her three grandchildren Ely Dane and wife Yung Ng of Lubbock, Texas, Rebecca (Dane) Tarver and husband Sterling Tarver of League City, Texas, and Tammy (Stevens) Lane and husband Jedediah Lane, of Whitharral, Texas. She is survived by eight great grandchildren, Joshua, Szachary, Benjamin, Karalyn, Matthias, and Annemarie Tarver of League City, Texas, and Ember and Clover Lane of Whitharral, Texas. She is survived by her youngest brother, Clayton Winkler. Verna is preceded in death by her sisters Alva Fryer and Clara Maria Childs, and her brother Alvin Winkler Jr.
Verna (Winkler) Moore Collier was an obedient daughter, a faithful wives to two husbands, a loving mother, grandmother, and great grandmother. She was a wide and industrious woman who, even at 96 years old, tried to do what she was no longer able to do. She often said that because she was born on Halloween, she was a natural-born spook, needing neither mask nor costume to go trick-or-treating.
Arrangements are entrusted to Acres West Funeral Chapel and condolences may be sent online to the family at acreswestfuneral.com.