Ivy Pulliam

Ivy Lurline Pulliam died Friday, August 5, 2011, in Durango, Colo. She was 98.

Lurline McKamey Pulliam was born in Port Lavaca, Texas, on August 14, 1912, the fourth of five children born to John W. McKamey and Maude E. McKamey. She grew up on her family's farm in Kamey, Texas, a small farming community named after her father located on the Texas Gulf Coast near Port Lavaca, Texas. The McKameys grew cotton, maize and corn on their black land coastal farm, also growing fresh vegetables for the family and workers who lived on the farm. As a child, Lurline lived the typical farm life of the day, doing farm chores with her brother and sisters, helping her father with the farm bookkeeping and studying school text books by the light of kerosene lanterns.

Upon completing high school, Lurline attended the University of Texas in Austin where she met and married Robert ("Bob") Neville Pulliam from Alpine, Texas, on October 31, 1931 (Halloween). The couple soon thereafter left school to start an advertising business in Austin, later moving to San Antonio and then finally to Alpine, Texas, so that her husband Robert could commence mercury mining operations in the "Terlingua Quicksilver Mining District."

While her husband opened and operated mines in the Terlingua area, Lurline began an accounting and tax consulting practice in Alpine, ultimately operating as Alpine Tax Service, Inc. During this period, Robert Pulliam commenced gold mining operations at a mining property near Ocampo in the state of Chihuahau, Mexico. While operating in Mexico, Robert Pulliam contracted pneumonia and died in 1968.

Lurline continued operating her own business after her husband's untimely death. Employing up to five people in her office during busy tax seasons, she worked long hours to build a successful practice, helping countless individuals, business people and ranchers in the community for a period that spanned almost fifty years until she finally sold her practice and retired in 1993 at age 81. A life-long member of the Presbyterian Church, Lurline was also an active member of the Pilot Club, the Texas Society of Public Accountants, the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Texas Chapter of the Mayflower Society.

With Lurline's passing only a few days short of her 99"' birthday, she leaves behind a loving family consisting of her son Virgil R. Pulliam of Durango, Colo.; grandson Scott R. Pulliam, M.D., of Arlington, Texas; great-granddaughters Nicole Nadine Pulliam of Galveston, Texas, and D'Laine Pulliam of Austin, Texas; granddaughter Jacqueline L. Pulliam of Woodland Hills, Calif.; granddaughter D'Laine Mindreau, great-grandson Shane Mindreau and great-great-grandson Devin Mindreau, all of New York, N.Y.

Visitation was held from 5-7 p.m. Tuesday, August 9, 2011, at Alpine Funeral Home in Alpine, Texas. A graveside service will be held at 10 a.m. Wednesday, August 10, 2011, at Elm Grove Cemetery in Alpine with a Memorial Service to follow at 11 a.m. at Alpine Presbyterian Church.