Mrs. Fredia Shumate

September 11, 1928 - August 24, 2021

Fredia Katherine Lee Shumate, 92, died Tuesday, August 24, 2021, just 18 days before her 93rd birthday. Fredia (pronounced Freda) was born at home in the Sulphur Springs Community of South Rusk County. She was the third child of John Thomas (JT/Tommy) Lee and Ethel Lea Sears Lee. She attended school in Sulphur Springs Community until her family moved to Mt. Enterprise in 1942. She graduated from Mt. Enterprise High School in 1946. She was a well regarded athlete particularly in Volleyball where she played on a coed team. She said “it was really easy because all you had to do was stand in front of the net and raise your hands”. She worked in the Mt. Enterprise Golden Rule Store as a high school student where she met her future husband, Thomas, who came in to buy thread for his mother. She graduated in 1948 from Tyler Commercial College in Tyler. She later worked for Paul S. Colley Sr, an attorney in Henderson. She and Thomas Lacy Shumate (nick-name Son) married on October 22, 1949. They were blessed with four children, Joe Edward Shumate, Robert G. Shumate, Ethel Ann Shumate-Steuer, and Malinda Kay Shumate-Elmdahl. She lived in Mt. Enterprise until they moved to Corpus Christi in the summer of 1957. They returned to Sulphur Springs Community in 2007. Thomas passed away March 8, 2008. She worked outside the home at least part-time most of her married life, primarily at the USDA Cotton Classing Office, starting in 1958, initially in administration and later as a cotton classer. She was in the first USDA Cotton Classing Training that allowed women. After receiving this training in the 1970’s, she won awards for speed and accuracy and traveled to various cotton producing states to class cotton. She continued to work and travel for the USDA until she was 76. She was active in her church, McArdle Road Missionary Baptist Church in Corpus Christi for 40 plus years. She held various positions at church including treasurer and secretary. She was also super organized and liked everything clean. “Everything had a place and everything needed to be in it’s place”. She also said “a woman could waste her life in the kitchen” so she only cooked 4 meals a week and leftovers were eaten the other days. Her husband Thomas never complained about her food. She loved to sew and do hand work. She sewed most of her own clothes and her daughters’ clothes. She said sewing relaxed her. She also found that raising four children was challenging especially when they reached their teen years in the late 60’s and 70’s. She was predeceased by her parents, her husband, her sister Mahdeen Lee Craycraft (Mt. Enterprise,) and brothers Neal (Corpus Christi, Victoria and Shiner) and Charles Lee (Mt. Enterprise). She is survived by her sister-in-law, Mary Beth Lee of Mt. Enterprise, her four children (Joe (Kim), Bob (Julie), Ann (Don Steuer) and Kay), 11 grandchildren (Gerald Shumate, Jennifer Shumate-White, Alyssa Shumate, Robert A. Shumate, Lee Steuer, Mark Steuer, Kelsey Christie McKinzey, Lindsey Christie Christensen, Tommy Christie, Ben Elmdahl, Joey Elmdahl), and 10 great grand children (Shelby McKinzey, Abbey McKinzey, Guy McKinzey, Caleb Christensen, Titus Christensen, Malachi Christensen, Asher Christensen, Tucker Christie, Coral Christie, Gwendolyn Christie). A special thanks to all the staff at Stallings Court Nursing and Rehab Center (Nacogdoches, TX), her church Sulphur Springs Missionary Baptist Church, family, and friends. Funeral services for Mrs. Shumate will be held at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, August 28, 2021, at Sulphur Springs Missionary Baptist Church in Mt. Enterprise with Tommy Christie and Rev. Marshall Moorhead officiating. Interment will follow at King Cemetery under the direction of Crawford-A. Crim Funeral Home. The family will receive friends from 4-6 p.m. on Friday, August 27, at the funeral home. Pallbearers will be Tommy Christie, Thomas Gerald Shumate, Robert Aldon Shumate, Gregory Dean Lee, Jeffrey Scott Lee, and Charles Wayne Lee. Words of comfort may be shared with the family at www.crawfordacrim.com.