Elsa Jeanette Tobey

Elsa Jeanette Tobey, 85, of Silsbee, died Saturday, August 17, 2024. She was born in Liberty, Texas, on October 13, 1938, to Gladys Oglesbee and Cicero Stewart. 

Her parents moved to Silsbee when her father became an engineer for the Santa Fe Railroad, and she grew up in an old house that used to sit just south of the site of Parker’s, where her mother always had a large garden. She graduated from Silsbee High School in 1957.

Jeanette met her husband while working at the Temple-Eastex Paper Mill and they married in Silsbee on July 19, 1958, and had their daughter, Pamela, in 1959 and their son, Sammy, in 1964. Jeanette spent most of her life as a homemaker, raising her two children, and worked for several years as a teacher’s aide for special needs elementary-age children.  She sang in the choir of the First Christian Church, where the family attended services and where her sister, Joyce, was the organist.  When the church closed, she joined the choir at Silsbee Methodist Church, singing every Sunday until 2020.

Jeanette volunteered most of her life at the Silsbee Public Library, most recently as a Library Board member. She served on the city planning committee and was a member of the Silsbee Women’s Club, the Silsbee Garden Club, the Red Hat Society, and the Silsbee chapter of Beta Sigma Phi sorority.  Jeanette also enjoyed gardening around her home in the Woodlea subdivision, where she had lived since 1959.

She is survived by her daughter, Pamela Tobey, and Pamela’s husband, Richard Dunham, her niece, Debbie McClelland, and husband, Ricky McClelland, and two great nieces and six great-great nieces. She is preceded in death by her parents, her sister, Joyce Wallace, her husband, Samuel W. Tobey III, and her son, Samuel W. Tobey IV (Sammy).

A gathering of Mrs. Tobey’s family and friends will be from 5:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m., Thursday, August 22, 2024, at Broussard’s, 490 Cemetery Road, Silsbee.  Her funeral service will be at 11:00 a.m., Friday, August 23, 2024, at Broussard’s, with her interment to follow at Knupple Cemetery, Silsbee.

In lieu of flowers, donations to the Silsbee Public Library for Jeanette Tobey are appreciated.