Bobbie Ruth Easterling

Bobbie Ruth Easterling, 91, passed away Wednesday, March 5, 2025, at 10:15 pm at Scenic Mountain Medical Center in Big Spring. Funeral services will be at 2 pm Monday, March 10, 2025 in the Nalley-Pickle & Welch Rosewood Chapel, with her cousin, Rev. Raye Nell Dyer. Chaplain of Vanderbilt Air Flight, Nashville, TN, officiating. Interment will be at Trinity Memorial Park.

Visitation is Sunday, 4:00-6:00 pm at Nalley-Pickle & Welch Funeral Home in Big Spring.

Bobbie was born June 23, 1933 in Gorman, Texas to Benjamin Franklin and Lockie (Dyer) Beach, the only one of their three children to survive childhood illnesses. She remembered moving frequently as a child throughout Texas and New Mexico, often multiple times in a school year, and she learned to make friends quickly. During WWII, she remembered riding her bike at the Fort Worth Stockyards while both parents worked, her mother as an inspector in the war plane factory. She was thrilled in fifth grade when they settled in Big Spring. Bobbie never forgot the teacher who stayed after school to help her catch up academically. She graduated from Big Spring High School in 1951, working at Hemphill Wells while still in school. Bobbie was a Christian, baptized as a young adult woman at East Fourth Baptist Church, and was a member of the Order of Eastern Star.

Bobbie attended Howard County Junior College (now Howard College) taking accounting and business classes in its first year to have buildings and a campus. She was a member of the Business and Professional Women organization and charter president of the local chapter of National Women in Construction. She worked as an accountant and business manager during her career, for Jones Construction, Webb Air Force Base and Barber Glass before retiring.

She married Billy Jack Johnston on December 20, 1951 in Big Spring, Texas. They had two children, Zina Elaine and Sammy Ben.  Together, they built and expanded the home she loved on Runnels Street, where she lived most of her life. Billy Jack passed away January 14, 1985.

In summer 1987, Bobbie was with a friend who stopped at a going away party for VA employee/Air Force Vet Jerry Neil Easterling. That chance meeting began a long-distance courtship that culminated in marriage October 30, 1987 in Livingston, Texas. Bobbie moved with Jerry to Gulfport, Mississippi to spend nine fun years living on the coast. When Jerry retired, they returned to her Big Spring home and family.

Bobbie loved to dance, meet people, shop and support her family. She never met a stranger and made everyone feel at ease. She helped everyone and gave freely. She saw the best in people and did not remember their faults. She suffered many hard losses, having been preceded in death by her parents, many close aunts and uncles, both husbands; daughter, Zina Elaine Wood; and her only two grandchildren, Casie Elaine Wood and Brent David Wood. With each loss, she looked to the peace within, to the gift of having them rather than the hurt of losing them. She refused to give up the people they had brought into her life and chose to move on with joy. She adopted Zina’s business partner, Carla, as a daughter years ago, and her grandson’s fiancé, Amanda, as her own bonus grandchild. “Family doesn’t have to be blood to be just as loved”, was one of her favorite sayings.

Bobbie’s survivors are listed as she called them: son Sammy Johnston; son-in-law and “adopted daughter”, David and Carla Wood; “granddaughter” Amanda Charlton and “great-granddaughters” Kyleigh, Kamryn and Kynleigh Heckler; many cousins whom she loved dearly; good friends and helpers Mickey Gammons, and Kristin and Brandon Bryant.

The family suggests memorials to Cystic Fibrosis or Disabled American Veterans.

Arrangements are under the direction of Nalley-Pickle & Welch Funeral Home and Crematory. Online condolences may be made at www.npwelch.com http://www.npwelch.com

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