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Elva Lee Posey Packer |
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Wednesday, 04 June 2008 |
Elva Lee Posey Packer was lovingly known to her many friends as “Posey” and to her grandchildren as Granny Posey. The name she took great pride in was being known as mother and as the wife of the late Cliff Packer. She loved life as strongly as she loved her husband and children, Trena, Drew and Glynda.
A Benton area resident for six decades, Posey Packer died Tuesday, June 3, 2008, at the age of 86 with a lifetime of memories filled with church, family, politics, travel, dogs, horses and Arkansas’ legendary Cliff Packer Auto Ranch.
A true steel magnolia with a clever wit, until her recent serious illness, she often voiced a quick laugh and a twinkle in her brown eyes. A breast cancer survivor, she was diagnosed with bone marrow carcinoma in February 2008.
Born in Carroll, La., in the Red River Parrish near Coushatta La., she met and married Cliff Packer while working in the ticket office of a theater in Longview, Texas, around 1942. While he served in the Army for five years, she worked alongside her parents, the late Clarence and Daisy Posey, in the East Texas Ammunitions Plant doing their part for World War II.
In the early 1950s, the young couple moved to Arkansas, which proved to be their land of opportunity. They set up several entrepreneurial businesses near Little Rock and Benton, including Cliff Packer Auto Ranch, Trailer Sales, Service Station and Restaurant. Visionaries about the importance of the land at the Pulaski-Saline County lines, the Packers were among the first to purchase property there and build a business in the area. With a love of history and tradition coming from her Louisiana roots, they bought and renovated an 1890s-era home they lovingly called the “Stagecoach House” on old Highway 5. Much of the land they owned is now the Interstate connecting Little Rock and Benton. They established and managed KKDI-FM radio station in Sheridan for several years.
While she admitted to riding a horse “only a couple of times,” she was a renowned “ground level” expert who helped her husband and children with horsemanship and training tips. The Packer family traveled throughout the United States and were known for their excellent riding ability. They enjoyed an extended family of friends acquired through involvement with the Civitan Club, Saline County Fair, saddle clubs, cutting horse associations and the Arkansas State Fair. Mrs. Posey, as she was known at the Arkansas State Fair, was a founding member of the Arkansas State Cutting Horse and Quarter Horse Associations. She was a founding member and chaired the Arkansas State Fair Rodeo Queen Pageant for 25 years. Until her illness, she was active with the State Fair Board of Directors and the Arkansas Republican Party.
She was an integral part of the Arkansas State Republican Party and Saline County Republicans for more than 25 years. Together, the Packers chaired numerous committees and were avid fundraisers for the Grand Old Party. Additionally, they were National Convention delegates and attended inaugurations for Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush. It was not uncommon to pass by the Packers’ home en route to Hot Springs and view a huge banner endorsing Arkansas Republican candidates from congressmen to governor.
The many contacts she made through business, horseback riding and politics often were drop-in guests. She was a fine Southern lady who enjoyed playing impromptu hostess to these well-known guests and learned fast how to stretch a meal. “It was not unusual for Daddy to call and say he was bringing someone for dinner and 10 minutes later Ken ‘Festus’ Curtis, Roy Rogers and Dale or Glen Campbell or even Jerry Lee Lewis or Tanya Tucker would walk in,” she recalled recently. Other times it might be the governor, a senator or Win Paul Rockefeller.
A master of landscape architecture, she had no formal training but learned by “digging, planting and watching.” She enjoyed vegetable gardening, growing muscadines and flowers and shrubs. Her thumb was equally green in cultivating African violets, Easter lilies, orchids and her favorite pinkish-peach-tipped roses. She could root anything into a beautiful flower or shrub.
A favorite pastime, when she wasn’t watching her “story” — “General Hospital” — or game shows, where she could answer most any question, was listening to music CDs. She loved the close harmony quartets like the Gaither vocal band and the Gatlin Brothers as well as patriotic melodies and hits by Patsy Cline and Michael Buble.
She loved her church family as she did her own and was an active member and even had a designated pew complete with a pillow to cushion her back at the Highway Church of Christ in Benton. She served with the church visitation committee, Vacation Bible School and as a teacher. Previously, she was a part of the congregations at Northside Church of Christ and Mabelvale Church of Christ.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Cliff Packer, and one daughter, Glynda Packer Isaacs.
Survivors are two children, Trena Packer Street and husband R.W. of Collierville, Tenn., and Clifford Andrew Packer and wife Teresa of Kilgore Texas; a granddaughter, Andrea Packer of Sheridan; grandsons, Lt. Dustin Packer, stationed at Meridian, Miss., Naval Station and Kristofer Isaacs of Conway. She also is survived by a nephew, Kenny Wayne Packer and wife Lou; a niece, Sherry Halbert and husband John; a cousin, Leroy Jones and wife Naomi of Damascus, Ark.; two step-granddaughters, Kathy Bousson and husband Jeff of Collierville, Tenn., and Linda Greenwood and husband Marc of Pilot Point, Texas; seven step-great-grandchildren, Amanda Bousson Cantrell and husband Luke, Megan, Blake and Jake Bousson, Matthew, Lucas and Will Greenwood; and other Posey family relatives in her home state of Louisiana.
If desired, contributions may be made in her name to the Highway Church of Christ Building Improvement Fund, 1500 Arkansas 5 North, Benton AR 72019.
A “Remembering Posey” service will be held at Highway Church of Christ at 1 p.m. Thursday, June 5. All are invited to attend a luncheon at the church at noon preceding the remembrance.
A graveside service will be held at 2 p.m. at Pinecrest Memorial Park, 7401 Arkansas 5 North, Alexander, AR.
Visitation will be from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. today, June 4, at Ashby Funeral Home, Benton AR.
Online guest book: www.ashbyfuneralhome.com. |
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