Willis B. Springfield

Willis Baker Springfield died peacefully at his Cold Springs residence on December 19, 2024, following a lengthy illness. He was 88.

Willis was born to Willis Baker Springfield and Gilla Dee Hoover on January 21, 1936. Willis never knew his father as the senior Springfield died prior to Willis’ birth. In 1942 Gilla Dee married Fritz Streib.

Willis was an educator by profession, rancher by love and a historian by passion.

Before graduating from Uvalde High School in 1954, Willis attended school in Rio Frio and in Brackettville. Willis graduated from the University of Texas in 1959 followed by his student teaching in Round Rock. He then moved to Kingsville, signed his first teaching contract for $3,200 a year, and began a 32-year career as an educator. He taught at Gillett Junior High School and was later the school’s principal. It was also at that time he earned his Master’s degree from Texas A&I University.

It was at Kingsville that Willis met the love of his life Rubye-Ford, lovingly called Ford. They were married on August 14, 1964. Following their marriage, Willis and Ford moved to Cedar Hill where he was a school administrator. In 1979 the couple moved to Uvalde where Willis worked briefly at Gensco before working with the Uvalde CISD evaluating teachers in the Career Ladder Appraisal System. In his last educator’s role, Willis served as principal at Robb Elementary School.

In 1992 Willis and Ford moved to the Rio Frio area on property that had been owned by his Uncle Wilson Hoover and his wife Mary. It was there he was living at the time of his passing.

Willis was a very active rancher carrying on the family tradition of raising angora goats, Spanish goats, Suffolk sheep and cattle. He ranched in the areas of Elm Creek and Cold Springs.

Willis had a passion for history and preserving the past. He was adamant about restoring the Hoover log cabin as a project completed in 2010 in Kingsland at the Antlers Inn on the banks of the Colorado River at Lake LBJ. The cabin was originally from an area in Burnet County called Hoover Valley. He organized the Rio Frio School reunion, and was chairman of the 2013 Real County Centennial celebration. In 2015 he spearheaded the restoration of the historic Rio Frio Church building. Perhaps, his greatest historical achievement was the planning, organizing and printing of the 100-page book about the Rio Frio schools titled, The Lives and the Loves of the Last Students.

Willis was preceded in death by his wife in 2004 and by his parents. He is also preceded in death by brother Fritz Henry Streib.

Willis is survived by his brother George W. Streib of Concan; grandchildren Craig Hauser of McKinney and Meredith Long of League City. He is also survived by nieces and nephews Shawn Streib Gray of Leakey; Lisa Streib Oden of Magnolia; Katrina Mitchell of Uvalde; Kristel Streib of Concan and Travis Streib of San Antonio. 

Services will be held at 10 AM on Friday, December 27, at the Rushing-Estes-Knowles Mortuary in Uvalde with burial to follow in the Sabinal Cemetery. Charles Carlson will officiate.

Please consider memorial contributions to the Real County Historical Museum or the Uvalde Grand Opera House or the Leakey Ex Students Association.