RHETA YVONNE OSBORNE
Rheta Yvonne (Beaver) Osborne passed away on Friday, April 29, 2022, at the age of 87 while a resident of Teague Nursing and Rehab in Teague. A visitation will be conducted from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday, May 6, at Capps Memorial Chapel. A funeral service will be at 2 p.m. Saturday, May 7, at Kirvin Baptist Church in Kirvin with Brother Walter Pickens officiating. Interment will follow at Woodland Cemetery in Kirvin.
Rheta was born Oct. 23, 1934, in Robert Lee. She was the oldest of seven children. Rheta spent much of her childhood and school years in Big Lake, where she met and married her husband and true love, Leon, and they enjoyed 55 years of marriage and adventure together.
Rheta was strongwilled, determined and hard-working. As a member of the Kirvin Baptist Church, she was active for many years in the Sunday school and vacation Bible school programs.
In 1967, Leon took a job in Alaska. Rheta, who was never afraid of tackling hard jobs, sold most of their belongings, packed their six children and the essentials into a Volkswagen bus and drove to Alaska to make a new home. While residing in Anchorage for 10 years, Rheta worked briefly at The Anchorage Daily News, where a young and not yet famous Bob Ross also worked.
In 1976 she moved to Wasilla, Alaska, and built a new home with the help of their three youngest sons. In 1983, they moved back to Texas to be closer to their roots and Rheta’s aging parents. In the 1990s she worked her way up from security guard to head of security at the Big Brown Power Plant in Fairfield for eight years. She loved gardening, and until it wasn’t physically practical for her anymore, there was always a vegetable garden and blooming flowers in beds and pots all around her home.
Osborne was preceded in death by her parents, Ricia (Bagwell) and Willie Beaver; her husband, Leon Silvertooth Osborne; and her six siblings, Edmond Ray, Helen Lee, Myrtle Glenda, Billy Leon, Jimmy Frank and Kenneth Malcolm.
Rheta is survived by her children, Dolores Ann Patras and husband Jim, Linda Faye Peters and husband Richard, Stanley Leon and wife Lillie, William Lynn and wife Konnie, Douglas Wayne and wife Nani, and Jimmy Dale and wife Eileen; one sister-in law, Deanna Beaver; 16 grandchildren; and 24 great-grandchildren.