Tempie Mae Humphrey

Tempie Mae Humphrey

Name: Tempie Mae Bourland

Born: December 29, 1898, Texas

Died: October 17, 1993, San Angelo, Tom Green County, Texas

Burial: Abilene, Texas

Father: James John Humphrey (1866 - 1936)

Mother: Emma May Hamilton (1881 - 1980)

Married: William Abner Bourland (1899-1982) on March 14, 1923, Abilene, Texas
Children:

William Roy Bourland (1925-2001)

Lester Earl Bourland (1930-1999)

Notes:

No 1900 Census record has been located for Tempie's family.

1910 Census - Tempie is living with her family in Clyde, Calahan, Texas, USA

1920 Census - Tempie Humphrey is a school teacher boarding with the Rhodes family in Nolan County, Texas. Jewell Camp is also listed as a school teacher boarding with the Rhodes.

1930 Census - Tempie and William A. Bourland are living with their sons, William R. and Lester E. Bourland in Jones, County, Texas.

Lester, Alma, and Tempie Humphrey, early 1906

Young Tempie Humphrey

Picture is from Tempie Humphrey's Album

Labeled "Clyde team 1917"

Tempie was the first child of James and May Humphrey. She grew up in Callahan county and attended school at Clyde High School and then a teacher institute. She kept an album of pictures from her school years. It must have been a delightful time for her. One of the picture has a sentence "Was it all dreamed."

In 1920 Tempie is living in Nolan County as a school teacher. She is listed as a boarder in the home of the James Rhodes Family, along with Jewell Camp who is also a teacher.

In 1923 she Married William Abner "Bill" Bourland. They lived on a farm in Jones county and are listed in 1930 Census. Sometime afterwards they moved to town, Abilene, where Tempie's brother Lester had started a grocery business. Bill Bourland went to work for Lester, and then later would own his own store.

Bill and Tempie Bourland and Sons

The city of Abilene forced Bill Bourland to sell his store in the late sixties and he was out of the Grocery business. He would work again for another small grocery store, and made the front page of the Abilene Reporter News (November 30, 1974) in a story about the last small grocery store in Texas. That store closed shortly thereafter

Bill Bourland passed away in 1982. As anguished as she was over her loss, Tempie's life was not over yet. She sold their home and moved herself into an assisted living center in San Angelo and then preceded to travel. She visited relatives around the United States, went to Hawaii, and very late in life went to the Holy Lands, where she was the matriarch of the tour group. This was among the precious memories that remained with her for the rest of her life.

Tempie left us in 1993 at the age of 94. She died in her home in San Angelo and was buried next to her husband in Abilene.