Ranger Exes Memorial - RHS Class of 1930

Elizabeth Neal ELIZABETH NEAL STROUD, 73, was born Jan. 23, 1913 in Ranger, TX and was in the Ranger High School Class of 1930 at Ranger. Her brother was Presley K. Neal & her sister was Lillian Neal Eastland. Elizabeth attended St. Joseph Hospital School of Nursing in Fort Worth and became an LVN. She returned to Ranger and married Herman Neal Stroud who was working on her father's farm. They lived their entire lives in Ranger, except for the time Mr. Stroud served in the U.S. Navy during WWII. Herman Stroud served on the Ranger School Board during 1965-1966 and died in Ranger on Feb. 12, 1967. They adopted a daughter, Catherine (RHS-1965), at birth in 1947 and later adopted two sons in 1963, Ronnie & Robert. Robert died when he was a teenager in 1972. Elizabeth worked as a nurse at the West Texas Clinic and later at Ranger General Hospital. She also worked as a private duty nurse and worked at Ranger's nursing home, the Western Manor. She usually took summers off to stay home with her daughter, when they would harvest and can or freeze the vegetables from their large garden. After school started again in the fall, she would usually return to work as a nurse. She was active in church, Eastside Baptist (her grandfather founded Ranger's Second Baptist Church), and in the LVN Association and was a member of Eastern Star. After Mr. Stroud died, she later sold the farm and moved into town where her granddaughters would visit her for wonderful summers in Ranger. Elizabeth became very ill in 1985 & lived in the Western Manor nursing home for a period of time until she had progressed well enough to move into her own apartment. Arrangements for an apartment at the Gholson Hotel were made but she went to Katy, TX, to visit her daughter and died there on June 18, 1986 before returning to Ranger. She was buried at Evergreen Cemetery next to Mr. Stroud and their adopted son, Robert L. Stroud. She is survived by her daughter, Catherine Burns and her husband, Ray, of Delray Beach, FL; the son, Ronnie Stroud; two granddaughters, Jeanette Livingston and her husband Mike and daughter Shyanne Thompson of Baltimore, MD, and Joya Albritton and her husband Marc and son Alexander and daughter Jordan of Wellington, FL.