Belva Yvonne Rice Phagan Schott
Yvonne was born prematurely while passing through Orth, Texas, from Corsicana to Pampa, Texas, on January 28, 1926, during a blizzard.
She grew up all over Texas; her father was a Construction Foreman for Atlantic Oil Company and they followed the oil fields. She lived in Pampa, Hobbs (NM), Aransas Pass, Portland, Cisco, Corpus Christi, Refugio, Annaville, Copperas Cove, and San Antonio, as well as Frankfort and Munich, Germany.
Yvonne died at The Mission nursing home, Blue Skies of Texas- East, San Antonio, Texas, on June 29, 2024, at the age of 98.
At the age of 17, Yvonne's first job was as a Helper General, sorting nuts and bolts at the Corpus Christi Naval Air Station in 1942, right after she graduated High School and WWII began. She met Leo Carlton Phagan in Portland, TX in 1943 while he was on leave from the US Navy; they married in 1946, after Leo returned from the South Pacific. Shortly thereafter, they moved to Cisco to become partners in Yvonne’s parents’ business, Rice Gasoline Company (formerly Graves Gasoline Company and later, Phagan Gasoline Company).
Yvonne also worked nights at Southwestern Bell Telephone Company in Cisco for 19 years as a Telephone Operator, while also keeping the books for their wholesale gasoline business.
After selling the gasoline business in 1966, they moved back to Portland and Yvonne went back to work at the Corpus Christi Army Depot (CCAD), Corpus Christi Naval Air Station (NAS) as a GS4 Procurement Helper where she ordered aircraft parts. In 1978, Yvonne married Hugo Wilson Schott, after they met at a Parents Without Partners Halloween party in 1977. In 1983, Yvonne transferred to Germany where she and Hugo lived from 1983 to 1988. Yvonne worked as a Management Analyst- Procurement for the US Army 66th Military Intelligence Brigade in Munich (1 ½ years) and for V Corps (3 ½ years) under Lt.General Colin Powell in Frankfurt.
While living in Germany, Yvonne and Hugo traveled all over Europe collecting memories and momentoes before she retired and they moved back to Texas (Copperas Cove) in 1988. After Hugo suffered a stroke in 1993, they moved to Blue Skies of Texas in 1997 (formerly Air Force Village), San Antonio, where she lived ever since. Hugo died in 2012.
Yvonne is predeceased by her parents, James Oscar Rice and Cleo Estelle (Guinne) Rice; grandparents Charles Lee Guinn and Rachel Victoria (Graves) Guinn; her older brother, Charles James Rice; her first husband and father of her two daughters, Leo Carlton Phagan; her second husband, Hugo Wilson Schott; and step-son, Col. Douglas Schott; niece Sylvia Marlene (Rice) Aguirre, as well as too many relatives and long-time friends to mention here.
Yvonne is survived by her two daughters, Linda Caron (Phagan) Witt (The Woodlands) and Carlene Lavone (Phagan) Johnson and son-in-law Carl Johnson ( San Antonio), step-daughter Cynthia Ann (Schott) Pittard and husband Bob Pittard (Dallas); step-son Samuel Thomas Schott (Memphis, TN); sister Dorothy Cleonne (Rice) Steffey Truly (Rockport); brother Daryl Guinn Rice, Sr. and sister-inlaw Isabel (Vancleve, MS); granddaughters Jennifer Lynn (Beall) Saxton, husband Kern and great-granddaughters Charlotte Josephine and Sophie Clare (Los Angeles, CA); granddaughter Ashley Clare Beall (Austin); niece Cherie Estelle (Rice) Moore ( Arlington), nephews Daryl Guinn Rice, Jr. and wife Kathy (Baton Rouge, LA) , Ken Britton Steffey and wife Sarah Jane (Rockport), and Gina (Wilson) Bronk (Dallas).
Pallbearers are Ken Steffey, Sam Schott, Randy Goodman, Carl Johnson, Daryl Rice, Jr., and Larry Browne.
In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Blue Skies of Texas Foundation in San Antonio, TX (blueskiesoftexas.org/ afv-charitable-foundation/), Oakwood Cemetery in Cisco, or any charity of your choice.
A service of remembrance will be held at 3:00 pm on Thursday, July 11, 2024, at Kimbrough- Jacobs Funeral Home, 300 West 9th Street, Cisco, Texas, followed by burial at Oakwood Cemetery. A reception for friends and family will follow at the Conrad Hilton Center, 309 Conrad Hilton Avenue, Cisco, Texas.
[Jesus said] “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand”.
John 10:28