Rosalie Cumbie

1920 - 2025

Rosalie Brown Cumbie was born in Hillsboro, Texas on May 4, 1920, and left this earth to be with her Creator on September 13, 2025. Yes, she was 105 years old! She always maintained that she wanted to remain in her home until her passing, and she got her wish. Steadfast to the end, she called the shots, ruling the family with love and determination.
In 1938, she left her black dirt cotton roots where her father, Hyder, ran the local cotton gin, and headed to The University of Texas at Austin with her cousin, Martha, as her roommate. She graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1942. A favorite of her professors, especially one Charles Umlauf, who became a lifelong friend and mentor, she found her niche in art. World War II came and found Rosalie sketching planes for the War Department as a volunteer in Houston, Texas. It was there she met and married her first husband, Stan McCormick, Sr. They had two robust young boys, Stan and Pat, and a pet duck named Ducky Lucky for company. When Stan Sr. tragically died in 1957, Rosalie rolled up her sleeves and headed back to Austin. She lived in a motel with her two boys while she earned her teaching certificate at UT.
Returning to Houston, she became a beloved kindergarten teacher for 30-some-odd years, teaching hundreds of young girls and boys to read and write (yes, kids used to know how to write). On the advice of a Sunday school friend, she went on a date with Irv Cumbie and met the love of her life. They married in 1963 and settled together in Houston until the house got too small: a blended family, Irv came with three daughters, Cindy, Lynn, and Pamand a Chinese pug named Misty.
The house of their dreams followed in Westlake Hills, as they built it in a combined effort with her cousin, Doris, and her husband, Bill Walcutt: back-to-back lots, back-to-back plans, a real foursome for life. Doris decided the town needed a library, so she and Rosalie headed up fundraising, filled in the details, and the Westbank Community Library was formed. When Doris's son, Bruce, started the first County Line Restaurant On The Hill, Doris baked all the bread in both their kitchens and Rosalie sewed the curtains for the windows.
In her 60s, Rosalie revisited her talent in art. When Irv raged at the TV over some football call or some mistake by his beloved Texas Longhorns, she went down the hall to her studio to paint. Always with sketchbook in hand, she drew scenes from her travels and the grandchildren from photographs. Never without her camera, she chronicled every family dinner, birthday, wedding, or event on record and placed the photos in albums: dated, stamped, and identified100s of albums, and one of her favorite hobbies. The house on Spiller Lane, her church, her friends and family, along with Irv, were her mainstays for 48 years. Along with her pecan pie and pimiento cheese sandwiches on white bread, her sense of humor was legendary-not a sentence came out of Rosalie's mouth that wasn't preceded and followed up by a chuckle.
Her sense of humor was her saving grace as she weathered the storm of losing people close to her, especially her brother, Joe, who was killed in Austin in 1982. When Irv died at age 99, and Rosalie faced turning 100 by herself, her grandson, Travis, asked how it felt, and she replied with a laugh, "Well, I guess I'm starting over." To commemorate her 100th birthday, the Austin American Statesman sent her a declaration and Governor Abbott flew a Texas flag over the Capitol. She persevered for five more years, outliving many of her friends and refusing to go to a nursing home because they were full of "old people on walkers." Her final loss occurred this past January when her youngest son, Pat, went home to be with the Lord. On her deathbed, her last words were, "there's Irv, it's Irv, hi Irving" and with that he walked her home. She's currently hosting a very large dinner party in heaven.
Preceding her in death are her parents, Rosalie Wilkinson Brown and Hyder Joseph Brown, Sr., her first husband, Stanley Irwin McCormick, Sr., her brother, Hyder Joseph Brown, Jr., her husband, Irving M. Cumbie, cousins, Doris Walcutt (Bill), Martha Vaughn (Jimmy), Bruce Walcutt, John Walcutt, and Matthew Walcutt, her daughter, Lynn Cumbie, her son, Patrick Lee McCormick, and former daughter-in-law, Tula Neighbors McCormick.
She is survived by her son, Stanley Irwin McCormick, Jr. (Bobbie), her daughter, Cindy Parisher (Darrel), and her daughter, Pam Cumbie; her grandchildren: Brooke McCormick Paul (Andrew), Molly McCormick Johnson, Travis Lee McCormick (Ljuba), Ryan Parisher, and Rebecca Parisher; great grandchildren: Dylan Parisher, Bree Parisher, Tristan Paul, Gunnar Paul, Sierra Salguiero, Jaxon Parisher, Gigi McCormick, Joaquin McCormick, and Benjamin Johnson; and cousins: Mary Walcutt, Ana Salas-Porras (Bill King), Paul Walcutt (Kady), and Mariah Mirshahzadeh (Darius).
Family and friends are invited to a funeral service at 2 p.m. CDT on Friday, October 24, 2025, at Westlake United Methodist Church, 1460 Redbud Trail, West Lake Hills, TX 78746. To watch the service online, please join at https://vimeo.com/event/5419087. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to Westbank Community Library or the UMLAUF Sculpture Garden + Museum.
Arrangements by Weed-Corley-Fish, 5416 Parkcrest Drive, (512) 452-8811.