Lucille Broach

Helen Lucille Alexander was born at home in Dallas, Texas on January 1, 1924. She was the youngest of the six children of Frank Alexander and Maude McKinney Alexander. Lucille’s memories of her childhood center around the two-story house on Exline Street built by her father, a master carpenter, at the end of the street car line.

Lucille always looked forward to the summer days when her grandpa C. H. McKinney would come and visit the family. In the morning, he would play dominoes, card games and checkers with Lucille, her brother Leroy and her sister Louise. During the winter months, her grandmother Mary McKinney, assisted by her mother, would piece and then quilt intricately patterned quilts. Lucille and Louise loved to play with their dolls beneath the quilting frame which hung from the ceiling in the downstairs bedroom. Lucille and Louise attended Ervay Street Methodist Church every week growing up. Lucille was baptized and joined the church at age 12.

Lucille graduated as valedictorian from Forest Avenue High School in 1941. Her senior year, she was editor of the high school newspaper and the yearbook. She was elected Queen of the 1941 Silver Jubilee at the school by the faculty based on character, personality, excellence in scholarship and leadership.

Lucille attended junior college, after which she worked for two years as a typist to fund her final years of college. In January 1947, she completed her bachelor’s degree in English at Southern Methodist University. A two-year teaching fellowship enabled her to complete her master’s degree in English in August 1949 by teaching freshman English to the returning veterans of World War II under the GI Bill. Lucille loved the challenge of teaching at SMU and considered completing her doctorate, deciding against it only because in that day and time she believed she had to choose between a career and a family. She was an English Instructor at SMU until she married.

In the fall of 1950, Lucille met LB Broach, III, at a dinner party honoring her future brother-in-law and his fiancé. LB was a young Methodist minister serving in Quitman, Texas. The next week he told his brother Richard to get him a date with Lucille, and a long-distance courtship ensued, with LB driving to Dallas for over a year for Thursday evening dates. They married on February 7, 1952, at Ervay Street Methodist Church.
LB and Lucille settled into the parsonage in Quitman, Texas. Prior to their marriage, Lucille had never heard LB preach, but “fortunately, he was a good preacher.” The first Sunday after their return, LB introduced his new bride. His congregation embraced her as their own, and Lucille embraced small-town life and the people. Indeed, Lucille considered it high praise when the elderly, down-to-earth Mrs. Armour told her, “Honey, we’d never know you’d been to college”! Lucille, although generally serious, was always able to laugh at herself, and she laughed about this “compliment” for years.

LB and Lucille had two daughters. Cyndi was born in 1953 and Pam was born in 1958. Methodist ministry meant that the family moved every 3-6 years. They served First Methodist in Quitman, First Methodist in Caldwell, and Pleasant Retreat in Tyler during the 1950s; St. Mark's in Port Arthur and First Methodist in Crockett in the 1960s, St. Marks in Houston and First UMC in Nacogdoches during the 1970s, First UMC in Marshall and the Palestine District in the 1980s, and First UMC in Henderson during the 1990s. Lucille loved the people in each church they served and supported LB’s ministry by teaching Sunday School for any age group that needed a teacher and by hosting many groups in the parsonage.

Lucille taught freshman English at Tyler Junior College in the late 1950s. She taught remedial reading to junior high students in Crockett in the late 1960s. Lucille was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 1971, but she continued to engage in many church activities and to actively entertain church groups in support of LB’s ministry with help from her daughters and LB.

Upon retirement in June 1993, LB and Lucille settled in Plano, Texas, to live near their daughters and five grandsons: Micah, Walter, Ricky, Kirk and Alex. They immensely enjoyed hosting their young grandsons almost every Friday night, building lasting bonds of love and influence. LB and Lucille were active members of the Disciples Sunday School Class at Christ United Methodist Church in Plano, Texas for 20 years. They moved to Highland Springs Retirement Community in December 2012.

LB and Lucille were married for 64 years when LB died on July 2, 2015. Lucille died on March 31, 2019. Both were spiritually strong to the end, rooted securely in their faith in God’s promise of eternal life, and with the conviction that His promises are true (Hebrews 11:1). “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21). Thanks be to God!

Ten Things I Learned from My Mom by Cyndi O’Bannon ~ August 2009

1. The way you love is unconditionally. My mom’s love for me was a constant in my life. It was given freely and unfailingly. I never doubted that she loved me, even though she was not hesitant to let me know when she disapproved. Love wasn’t something I had to earn from her through good behavior.

2. I was likeable just the way God made me. It was OK when I was different from others. Mom never compared me to others or wanted me to change to be more like them. Not one to express things in theological terms, her abiding respect for God and for me as God’s creation shone through. I had straight hair, and in a world that valued curls and “body” and had very little nice to say about my hair, I was able to like it just because it was mine.

3. My mom believed in me. She always believed God had given me special gifts and never doubted that I was going to accomplish something valuable with my life. Because she believed in me, I believed in myself. When others didn’t see my potential or thought the path, I had taken in following God was bizarre, her belief in me (and in God) was unwavering. She was the bedrock of my self-confidence.

4. We can (and should) laugh at ourselves. When we were struggling with something, Mom was quick to see the humor (or absurdity) in our situation. She would begin to laugh silently, stopping whatever she was doing, with the laugh catching in her throat and tears coming to her eyes, her body convulsed with laughter. It was a laugh that was contagious to me.

5. Don’t cry over spilt milk. When accidents happen, there is nothing to do but learn from them and move on. Nothing is helped by assigning blame. Better to spend your energy figuring out how to keep the milk from spilling in the future.

6. Life counts. We don’t get a do-over. We should be faithful in the responsibility’s life brings our way. “Life is real, life is earnest” was her quote when describing her mother’s (and her own) attitude towards life. What we do in this life matters. Make the most of every opportunity, and don’t fritter your life away.

7. Reach outside yourself. Teaching was a calling to her. Before Mom married, she taught freshman English at SMU to the returning GI’s from World War II. In Tyler, she taught at the junior college. In Crockett, she was in the first wave of remedial reading teachers, saying “I don’t think I could read either, if I had the problems these kids have at home.” She was always teaching at the church, wherever she and Dad felt there was an unmet need; and she set precedents in opening the parsonage to church families, entertaining them frequently.

8. Fit in, but you don’t have to belong. Mom was a well-educated woman, a “city girl” by temperament, who moved with my dad to a series of small East Texas towns over the course of forty years in the ministry. She never stopped thinking for herself, but she learned to be gracious and to love the people at every stop. At one of the first “preacher’s wives’ meetings”, she was appalled that the topic was how to fold bed sheets. In Quitman, when an older woman told her that no one would have ever know that she had a college education, she treasured her statement for the acceptance it represented. In Crocket, she promptly doubled the maid’s wages because she thought the woman was entitled to a living wage.

9. Treasure things but hold them lightly. Mom loved beautiful things and appreciated good styling. But she had a rule that anything we hadn’t used since the last move was to be discarded when we moved again. “Stuff” was never allowed to get in the way of living.

10. We shouldn’t fear our weaknesses. When I was seventeen, Mom was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. For one who had been given to “burning the candle at both ends,” this was quite a game changer. As she learned to carry on despite her physical weakness and lack of stamina, Mom’s testimony has always been “I just put my hand in the hand of the Lord.” As I have seen her grow in faith, in love and in radiance, she has been for me the living embodiment of God’s message to the Apostle Paul: “My grace is sufficient for you. My power is perfected in your weakness.”

Lucille is survived by daughters and son in law Cyndi and Steve O’Bannon of Plano and Pam Peck of San Antonio; grandchildren Micah O’Bannon and his wife Dara of Ft Worth, Walter O’Bannon and his wife Shannon of Allen, Ricky O’Bannon of Los Angeles, Kirk O’Bannon of Plano, Alex Peck San Antonio; great grandchildren Victoria Taylor of Ft Worth and Xander Davis of Hawaii; sister Louise Prior of Plano; nieces Gee Gee Walker of Medford, Oregon, Judy Schulze of San Antonio and Cherie Hansard of Ft Worth. She was preceded in death by the love of her life LB Broach, III who passed away July 2, 2015; her parents and three older brothers Leon, Eugene and Leroy Alexander.

There will be a celebration of Lucille’s life Monday, April 8, 2019 at 11:00 A.M. at Christ United Methodist Church, 3101 Coit Rd., Plano, Texas 75075 and a visitation one hour prior to the service from 10:00-11:00 A.M.

Lucille will be laid to rest with her husband in Pittsburg, Texas.