Nelda Merritt

Funeral services for Nelda Marie Robinson Nolan Merritt, 84, of Cleburne, Texas will be conducted at 2 p.m. Thursday, May 14, 2015 at the Westhill Church of Christ, 1100 Westhill Drive in Cleburne. Shawn Williams will officiate.
Burial will follow in Greenacres Memorial Park.

The family will receive visitors from 6 – 8 p.m. Wednesday, May 13, 2015 at Rosser Funeral Home.

Serving as pallbearers will be Larry Davis, Ronnie McBroom, Randy Mayfield, Roger Trussell, Bill Rainey, Art Smith, Ray Triplett and Roy Bilberry.

Nelda Marie Robinson Nolan Merritt was born June 29, 1930 to James Peale and Margaret Rowena Box Robinson in Jacksboro, Jack County, Texas. She departed this life on May 10, 2015. Mrs. Merritt’s life is a tribute to her mother, who instilled in her a love of God and faithfulness to Him, which she passed on to her children and grandchildren.
Mrs. Merritt was raised in a very poor home in Bryson, TX. She married Walter E. Nolan II on September 29, 1945. They shared 43 years together. Twenty-six and one half of those years were spent in the service of the U.S. Navy, during which time she raised her 5 children, largely alone. Her trust in, and faithfulness to the Lord made it possible to care for her family in several states and circumstances. After 43 years of marriage, Lt. Commander Nolan (U.S. Navy, ret.) passed away on March 8, 1988.
On April 29, 1989, she married Byron Bennett Merritt, whom she met at church in Cleburne, TX. They were married 25 years until his death on July 11, 2014.
Her family and friends remember Mrs. Merritt for her love and dedication to her Lord and Savior and her church. She considered church attendance a joy and a privilege, never a duty or obligation. She was an active volunteer at Walls Regional Hospital and was a past member of ABWA, Literacy Volunteers of America, Embroiderers Guild of America, Beta Sigma Phi, Navy Officers Wives Club and various other community organizations.
Her children consider her strongest qualities to be: faithfulness, loyalty, steadfastness, strength, generosity, artistic, hospitable, gracious, caring, loving, kind and innovative. She will be greatly missed, but her joy is now complete.
“She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also and he praises her. Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all. Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Honor her for all that her hands have done, and let her works bring her praise at the city gate”. Proverbs 31:27-31.
She is survived by one sister, Ellen Rowena Robinson Hodges of Archer City, Texas, one son and four daughters and their spouses: Hattie and Thomas Surles (Baytown, TX), Paula and Tom Pauley (Cleburne, TX), Barbara and Jim Freeman (Flint, TX), Walter and Tricia Nolan (Baytown, TX), Robin and Mike Sheppard (Baytown, TX); 11 grandchildren, 20 great-grandchildren, 5 great-great grandchildren; 3 stepchildren and numerous step grandchildren.