VIRGINIA (LYNN) MATHEWS
2021
Virginia (Lynn) Mathews of Houston passed away peacefully on September 7, 2021 after a long, full life. Lynn was born in Memphis, Tennessee and spent her early childhood there. Her family moved to Helena, Arkansas, where Lynn spent most of her school years. After graduating from high school, Lynn attended and graduated from Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia. Lynn often said that those four college years were among the best of her life – a wonderful education experience, the making of life-long friends, and lots of fun.
Following graduation from college, Lynn met David Mathews, to whom she was married for almost 60 years. David was a recently graduated geologist from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. David’s work in oil and gas exploration took Lynn and David to the various oilfield towns of Texas and Louisiana. Along the way, three children were born to Lynn and David, Dana, Craig, and Hollis (Holly). While living in the east Texas town of Longview, the family met other young ‘oil patch’ families, developing long friendships, some of which endure to this day.
In 1965, Lynn and her family moved to Spring Branch area of Houston, where she and David lived until their deaths. Lynn earned a master’s degree in education from the University of Houston, which led to a fulfilling career as a guidance counselor at Spring Branch and Memorial High Schools. She met and developed friendships with a wonderful group of women who she met through her educational pursuits, her church and her neighborhood, as well as through friendships with the parents of her children’s friends.
Lynn really found her calling in counseling work. She would tirelessly encourage and persuade students to take classes she felt would interest and benefit them, to pursue meaningful goals in education, and to seek rewarding career paths. She held up her end of it, writing endless letters of recommendation for college admissions. She was rewarded with the satisfaction and memories of having helped many students find their path and a surprisingly long list of former students who kept in touch in the years after graduation.
Lynn was always interested in learning new things and experiencing new places.
She and David traveled extensively in Europe and the Middle East. She also traveled with friends to China, a rich experience that she recalled frequently and fondly. Lynn had a life-long interest in the stock market.
She was a co-founder of the Women’s Investment Group (the WIGS as they called themselves), one of the first women’s investment clubs in Houston. Lynn diligently followed the markets and worked to spot trends as they were happening. She was greatly interested in new technologies and would often invest in promising companies in the science, technology and engineering fields – reaping rewards for the risks she took. She was quiet about this, so her success as an investor is probably her least known accomplishment.
Lynn was preceded in death by the deaths of her parents, her only sibling Alan, her husband David, and her children Craig and Holly. Lynn is survived by her daughter Dana Mathews and her son-in-law James DeBruin of Dallas.
Our family expresses love for the support of all of Lynn’s friends, with special thanks for the devoted friendship of Vicki Jones and to Lynn’s caregiving family: Barbara, Tianna, and Tiarra Hill, Kim Haywood, Kelly Gray, and Benita Fon. They were there night and day, during the hurricanes, the snow and ice and COVID. We are so grateful for their care, kindness, and love.
Lynn will be cremated and her ashes interred with those of husband David at the Houston National Cemetery. A memorial service at Buckner Parkway Place is planned for a later date.
In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to a library, a museum, or school of your choice. This is what Lynn would have wanted.