Tommie Moulder

     Funeral services for Tommie J. Cable Moulder were held Saturday, September 7, 2013 at Saint Jo Church of Christ with C.E. Cole officiating. Internment followed at McGrady Cemetery. Services were directed by McCoy Funeral Home of Saint Jo.

     Tommie, age 96, peacefully passed away Tuesday evening September 3, 2013 in Weatherford, Texas with family by her side.

     Tommie was the sixth of seven children born to Tom and Belle (McGrady) Cable on April 15, 1917 near Clear Creek west of Saint Jo.

     Tommie had an adventurous childhood growing up in the Dye Mound area where she learned a great deal about making your own fun, a trait she put to use her entire life. Tommie used money from a cotton crop she and her siblings harvested to begin attending what is now the University of North Texas. She received both her Bachelors and Masters Degrees in Education from there.

     During WWII Tommie married her high school sweetheart, Johnnie Moulder just prior to his deployment overseas. Johnnie and Tommie enjoyed 53 years of a very loving marriage. One of Tommie’s greatest loves was being with and helping her family. She was very proud of being a wife to Johnnie, a mother to John Cable, and in helping raise her niece Lina Jo. Tommie’s nieces and their families were so dear to her heart adding unforgettable excitement and memories to her life.

     “Miss Tommie, Miss Tommie” was the call many of us heard for years. She recalled when it all began:

     “I’d introduced myself as Miss Tommie at Dye Mound because my mother was still alive, and my sister Lina also had the last name of Cable, and I thought another Miss Cable would just confuse people. When I came to Saint Jo to teach some of the same kiddos I’d taught at Dye Mound were students here, and they continued to call me Miss Tommie. After I got married they worried I was going to change my name. So they had me write a letter to my husband, who was in service at the time, and ask him if it would be alright if I could still be Miss Tommie. Johnnie replied that it would be fine to continue.”

     “When I took a job teaching at Prairie Valley, I thought I’d be Mrs. Moulder, and that’s how I introduced myself to a roomful of third and fourth graders. However, two or three days later a little girl said: ‘You’re not the teacher I thought was coming, my cousin in Saint Jo said a Miss Tommie was coming, and she said a lot of good things about her, but that Miss Tommie didn’t come.’ I said ‘Well, I am Miss Tommie, and that name just stayed with me from then on.”

     Teaching was not just a job to Tommie it was truly her passion. She felt that being an educator was the greatest profession a person could have. The evidence of this was shown through the fact that she could still remember students she had taught in the forties and fifties along with who they married and in most cases knew their children. The many visits she continued to have her entire life from former students was a source of great pleasure to her.  Her teaching career spanned 40 years and included 15 years as the Principal of Saint Jo Elementary. After retiring Tommie continued her service to the school by serving on the school board.

     Tommie was also a fan of having fun and was thus involved in every social club at one time or another that Saint Jo had to offer. Her greenhouse and the flowers she grew there were shared with many people in town. Tommie was very civic minded and involved in her community.  She was a member of the Saint Jo Church of Christ, numerous civic clubs as well as several professional organizations.

     Tommie is survived by her son John Cable Moulder and wife Allee, of Weatherford, Texas, two grandchildren Joncee Moulder Blake and husband Teal Blake currently of McLeod, Montana, and Reid Moulder currently attending Texas Tech in Lubbock, Texas. Nieces Lina Jo Flusche, Laveoda Nance, Stella Manion and Sara Reaves. Also several great-nieces and nephews.

     Tommie was preceded in death by her husband Johnnie Moulder, parents Tom and Belle Cable and siblings J.B Cable, Inez Wade, Pauline Johns, Winnie Belle Parks, Lina Boggess and T.S. Cable Jr., a niece Patty Sue Johns Black and nephew Charles Wade.