Obituary of Frankie Markham
Frankie Markham
June 11, 1932 – May 9, 2019
Frankie was born in a half dug out during the great depression outside Morse, Texas to Arthur Frank Womble and Ruby Mae (Giblin) Womble. Her grandfather, Arthur, drilled the first water well in the panhandle of Texas. She was the daughter of a mechanic, blacksmith and farmer who bought a section of land and moved the family to Dalhart, Texas when she was in the third grade. She attended elementary school and High School in Dalhart, Texas. The family resided in a farmhouse 17 miles north of Dalhart in a two-bedroom farmhouse with kerosene heating stove, natural gas cookstove and no inside plumbing. They got water from a windmill well near the house and carried it in three-gallon buckets to the house. They farmed wheat, ran a herd of cattle, some of which were Frankie’s, and grew most of their own food off the farm.
She met Don in high school and they married as soon as she graduated in June of 1950. She sold her cattle to buy her and Don’s first home in Dalhart. She worked at the telephone office until they moved to Sunray. She and Don moved to Sunray where she had their first two children and he worked in the oil patch.
in the early 1950s, She and Don moved to Austin, TX. While he attended UT, she worked in the beginning of the data processing era. She learned to work card readers.
Don was working for the 8th US Air Force and their third child was born in Holyoke, Massachusetts. They later moved to Amherst, MA where Frankie worked in the early computer era. She operated an early computer that required a four-story building to house all its components. The computer was part of NORAD system of the government but was housed at the University of Massachusetts.
After their stay in Massachusetts, they returned to Texas. There she operated the last IBM data card reader in the area as it closed. She was a data processing operator at PANTEX, a federal processor of Atomic waste. Later, she operated her own real estate business and was a member of the Amarillo Million Dollar Round Table, and the Amarillo Board of Realtors. She also became a member of Beta Sigma Phi, Social Sorority and was made the BSP Amarillo City Council’s Woman of the Year.
In the early 1990s they moved to Dallas to help their son and daughter-in-law with their two children. She also became a contractor to the Environmental Protection Agency as a Senior Environmental Employee (SEE) where she was employed until she retired in August of 2018.
During her life, she and Don traveled the world together, but no matter how far she went she never forgot a birthday or someone who she loved and cared for.
Frankie was preceded in death by her parents, Frank and Ruby Womble, a brother, Pat Womble, and a great-grand daughter, Kaitlin McCoy.
She is survived by her husband, Don Markham, her brother, Paul Womble, her daughter and son-in law, Karen and Tom Sterrett, two sons and daughters-in-law, Daniel and Kristin Markham and David and Addy Markham, five grandchildren Tricia Davis, Taren Walters, Casey Markham, Laura Markham, Brianna Markham, and eight great-grandchildren, Bryce McCoy, Tyler McCoy, Alexander Lobozzo, Andrew Davis, Kamri Walters, Evie Walters, Avery Walters and Maximus Walters.
In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts may be made to the Frankie M. Markham Memorial Fund at First Presbyterian Church of Richardson.