Novelle Parrish Moore passed away Tuesday, May 14, 2015, at Good Samaritan/Fort Collins Village in Colorado. She was born January 27, 1916, in Morris County, Texas, and lived her whole life in the county, primarily Omaha, Texas, until she moved to Cornerstone Methodist Retirement Community, Texarkana, Texas, in 2009. She spent her last months at Good Samaritan, near her daughter and son-in-law.

She received a B.A. and M.A. from East Texas State Teachers College in Commerce, Texas. In 1936, she married John Lee Moore, the boy (almost) next door in her childhood.

She taught for thirty-six years, most of her career at Paul H. Pewitt schools. She enjoyed teaching fifth and sixth grade more than any other—although she taught all grades, 1-12, at some time in her career.

Her professional life spanned a long history of Northeast Texas schools, beginning in one- and two-room schools in small communities in the 1930s. In the 1940s, she taught in Omaha, Texas, schools, including one year of the sixth grade in a makeshift classroom in the gymnasium after a tornado collapsed one wall of her classroom. The year after the gymnasium classroom, she and her teacher colleagues and friends moved to newly built Paul H. Pewitt schools.

For many years, she played first the piano and then the organ at the First United Methodist Church in Omaha, Texas. At Cornerstone, she played the piano for chapel services.

Novelle is survived by her daughter, Sandra Lee Moore, and son-in-law, Michael Vassallo, her grandson, John Slater (Casey Parola), and two great-granddaughters, Samantha and Megan. She is also survived by two nephews, Donald R. Parrish (Shirley) and Douglas B. Parrish (Carolyn), as well as dear friends at Cornerstone and in Omaha, especially Mary Ann Joyner, whose late husband, Johnny, was "Miss" Novelle's student in the Omaha gymnasium classroom.

Funeral services will be at 2:00 p.m. on Tuesday, May 19, 2015 at the funeral home chapel. She will rest in Omaha Cemetery beside her beloved husband, John Lee Moore, and near her parents, Quillon and Alva Parrish, as well as her brother and sister-in-law, J.D. and Lorraine Parrish.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that memorials be sent to organizations that reflect "Miss" Novelle's abiding interests and concerns:

Pewitt Education Foundation, P.O. Box 1106, Omaha, TX 75571

Cornerstone Retirement Community, 4100 Moores Lane, Texarkana, TX 75503

Southern Poverty Law Center, www.splcenter.org, 400 Washington Ave.,
Montgomery, AL 36104