Marvel Ward Culver Fikes, 91, passed away in Houston, March 16, 1991. Born in Council Bluffs, Iowa, she and her parents, Arthur Sinclair Ward and Lulu E. McCarty moved to Billings and Stark County, North Dakota in 1907. She received her elementary and high school education in Belfield, North Dakota, later attending Carleton College and McPhail's College of Music in Minnesota. After graduation, she became a public school music teacher in Minnesota and North Dakota schools. Following marriage to Marvin Kenneth Culver in 1925, they moved to Thorndale, Texas, and later to Houston where Marvel became an instructor of piano for approximately 20 years. Prominent in Houston music circles, she was a member and Past President of Tuesday Musical Club. She possessed a trained voice and was a soloist in various churches in Houston and the surrounding areas. She was a member and Past President of Chapter BB of the P.E.O. Sisterhood, a member of Mu Phi Epsilon International, a professional music fraternity. A descendant of Revolutionary War patriot Benjamin Ward and a member of the Fourth Church of Christ, Scientist, Houston. Following the death of her husband in 1955, she remarried in 1971 to Oyd Fikes and moved to Wimberley, Texas. She is survived by her sister Elizabeth (Betty) Ward Kennedy, three grandchildren Susan, David and Don VanVelzer and one great-grandchild, Donald Kenneth VanVelzer. She was preceded in death by a son, Donald Ward Culver and a daughter, Carolyn Marvel Van Velzer. Funeral services will be held at 11am Monday March 18, 1991 in the Settegast-Kopf Chapel, with interment to follow in Forest Park Lawndale. -- from the Houston Chronicle, March 17, 1991.
Marvel Ward Culver Fikes, 91, passed away in Houston, March 16, 1991. Born in Council Bluffs, Iowa, she and her parents, Arthur Sinclair Ward and Lulu E. McCarty moved to Billings and Stark County, North Dakota in 1907. She received her elementary and high school education in Belfield, North Dakota, later attending Carleton College and McPhail's College of Music in Minnesota. After graduation, she became a public school music teacher in Minnesota and North Dakota schools. Following marriage to Marvin Kenneth Culver in 1925, they moved to Thorndale, Texas, and later to Houston where Marvel became an instructor of piano for approximately 20 years. Prominent in Houston music circles, she was a member and Past President of Tuesday Musical Club. She possessed a trained voice and was a soloist in various churches in Houston and the surrounding areas. She was a member and Past President of Chapter BB of the P.E.O. Sisterhood, a member of Mu Phi Epsilon International, a professional music fraternity. A descendant of Revolutionary War patriot Benjamin Ward and a member of the Fourth Church of Christ, Scientist, Houston. Following the death of her husband in 1955, she remarried in 1971 to Oyd Fikes and moved to Wimberley, Texas. She is survived by her sister Elizabeth (Betty) Ward Kennedy, three grandchildren Susan, David and Don VanVelzer and one great-grandchild, Donald Kenneth VanVelzer. She was preceded in death by a son, Donald Ward Culver and a daughter, Carolyn Marvel Van Velzer. Funeral services will be held at 11am Monday March 18, 1991 in the Settegast-Kopf Chapel, with interment to follow in Forest Park Lawndale. -- from the Houston Chronicle, March 17, 1991.
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