Estelle Angeline Elder Alley was born January 28, 1910 in Palacios, TX, the youngest of nine children of P. A. and Mary H. Elder. After a brief illness, she died Saturday February 14, 2009. She was an active member of First Baptist Church. She had taught a women's Sunday School Class at First Baptist Church of Palacios, following a tradition of teaching the class, which her mother started many years before.

During the Depression, Estelle visited her cousin in Chicago, Illinois and met Charles Henry Alley, an artist, whom she married. When she brought him to Texas for a visit, he was charmed by Texas, and quickly began pulling strings to find a job in Texas. Fort Worth was their home for several years, and he got started in the farming and ranching business. When World War II happened, they both came to Palacios to work at Camp Hulen. Estelle helped care for her invalid mother, and participated in the Home Demonstration Club.

She prided herself on her cooking and entertaining. She delighted in calling herself Grand Ma to her great nieces and nephews. Her last years before going to the nursing home, were spent in the family compound at South Bay, along with her brother Ted, her sisters Olivia and Vic and her niece Mary Sheeran.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Henry Alley, and her parents P. A. and Mary H. Elder, her sisters Marianna, Huldah, Olivia, Victoria, and Jane, and her brothers William, P.A., and Ted. Her niece, Mary Sheeran, and her nephew, Cliff Rees, and many great nieces and nephews and great-great nieces and nephews survive her.

Graveside funeral services will be held at 2:00 PM Monday, February 16, 2009 at the Palacios Cemetery with Dr. Ben Sheeran and Rev. Zack Nicholson officiating.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to The First Baptist Church of Palacios.

Online condolence may be shared with the family at www.taylorbros.net.

Arrangements with Palacios Funeral Home, Palacios, TX (361) 972-2012.