BENNIE PELLERIN VOLOTKO GREEN
1925-2017
Bennie Pellerin Volotko Green passed away peacefully at her home in Houston surrounded by her family on Thursday, the 23rd of March 2017, at the age of 91.
She was born in Houston on the 13th of June 1925, in Houston to Mildred Fontenot Pellerin and Fredrick A. Pellerin. A lifelong Houstonian, she grew up in the Heights and attended Christ the King Elementary and St. Agnes Academy, graduating in 1941 at the age of 15. While she was unable to afford college, her performance at St. Agnes impressed school administrators and she was awarded a scholarship to Houston Business College.
Following her 16th birthday she wrangled a job with the Department of the Navy at Houston’s Mission Manufacturing as a clerk tracking equipment made for the Navy by Mission Manufacturing. Seeing that her position had little future she noticed that Mission’s President had just fired his then secretary. Not one to shy away from any situation, she stopped him in the hall and “applied” for the position. Mr. W.T. Campbell laughed and brushed off the young upstart. Two weeks later, when he fired his next secretary she again requested consideration for the position. Again he told her she was too young and that he needed someone of much greater maturity and knowledge. Unbeknownst to Mr. Campbell, Bennie had already used all her free time to inquire into and volunteer for any work she could find in all the various departments of Mission Manufacturing, thereby educating herself on many of the operational areas of the company. When, in another three weeks, Mr. Campbell fired his third secretary in the last five weeks, he found Bennie again knocking on his door to apply for the position. Frustrated by the poor performance of the prior applicants and being without readily available qualified applicants, Mr. Campbell gave in and acquiesced, giving Bennie the job for a day or two. After she survived two days, and without any candidates that met his requirements, he said she could stay on a “purely temporary basis” until he could find a properly qualified secretary. Surely he could find one in the next few weeks. Until his death in 1989, some 48 years later, Bennie was still his “temporary” right hand, having never been made, as Mr. Campbell loved to remind her, a “permanent employee”.
Over those years Bennie gave birth to two daughters, Vicki and “Little” Bennie, became a lifelong member of St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Church, put one girl through Saint Agnes Academy and the other through Duchesne Academy/Marion Episcopal High School and then TCU and The University of Texas, paid off her home, and met and married the love of her life, Joe M. Green Jr., with whom she traveled the world. She loved spending time in Colorado, New York City and Paris, France. During those years Bennie became an essential and dependable assistant to Mr. Campbell as he ran Mission Manufacturing and then moved on to act as Trustee to the numerous Blaffer and Campbell Family Trusts. She later served as the Executrix and Trustee of W.T. and Lula Key Campbell’s Estates and Trusts causing her tenure as a “temporary” Campbell employee to span over 60 years of loyalty to the man who gave a 16 year old upstart “a chance to prove what she could do.” Outside of the Campbell family businesses she served as a member of the Board of Directors of South Texas College of Law Houston (1996-2015) and as Treasurer and Trustee of Rockwell Fund (1994-2014) after which she served as Trustee Emeritus until her death, as well as 38 years in various Chair and Vice Chair positions and 36 years on Committees of the Charity Guild of Catholic Women, where she was awarded Emeritus Status in 2012. Bennie was also a Trustee, Committee Member, Patron and supporter of Bayou Bend, the Junior League of Houston, Houston’s numerous Museums and Arts organizations, the Houston Grand Opera, Theater Under the Stars, the Houston YMCA as well as the Houston Zoo and the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. As a lifelong supporter of St. Agnes Academy she was recognized by the endowment of The Bennie Pellerin Green Scholarship, to help young girls attend the colleges and universities that she was unable to attend. But, throughout it all Bennie was ever present at all her children’s activities. She always found ways to be involved from Brownies to Girl Scouts, school library volunteer, preparing and publishing numerous school directories, fund raiser, vacation trips around the country, Camp Mystic and Rocky River Ranch, and many others. She instilled in her girls the work ethic that made her such a success, while providing them with well-rounded life experiences that became the fabric from which their lives have been sewn. As was recognized by the Charity Guild of Catholic Women, “She lives her life with integrity, honor, and a devotion to her family and her Catholic faith.” She will be missed!
Bennie was predeceased by her husband, Joe M. Green, Jr.; her parents, grandparents and her siblings. She is survived by her daughters, Vicki Volotko and husband Max Garrett, and Bennie Marie Volotko, all of Houston; devoted grandchildren, Elizabeth Garrett Dewitt, William Tyler Garrett and Charlotte Anne Garrett, all of Houston; and great-grandchildren, Annie DeWitt, Molly DeWitt and Audrey Garrett. Bennie is also remembered by her housekeeper of over 25 years, Melinda Ramirez. The family would also like to recognize Pin Oak Caregivers for its care and the kindness of its caregivers through Bennie’s final time with us.
Friends are cordially invited to a visitation with the family from six o’clock until eight o’clock in the evening on Wednesday, the 29th of March, in the Jasek Chapel of Geo. H. Lewis & Sons, 1010 Bering Drive in Houston, where recitation of the Holy Rosary is to commence at seven o’clock.
A Mass of Christian Burial is to be offered at ten o’clock in the morning on Thursday, the 30th of March, at St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Church, 1801 Sage Road in Houston, where Rev. Wayne Wilkerson, Pastor, is to celebrate.
Immediately following, all are invited to greet the family during a reception in the adjacent Parish Life Center.
The family will then gather privately for the Rite of Committal at Forest Park Lawndale Cemetery in Houston.
In lieu of customary remembrances, the family requests that memorial contributions to be directed to St. Agnes Academy by contacting bridget.hennessey@st-agnes.org, or call 713-219-5481; St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Church, 1801 Sage Rd., Houston, TX, 77056; or to the Charity Guild of Catholic Women’s Children’s Charity Fund, 1203 Lovett Blvd., Houston, TX, 77006.