Alva M. Autry

Services for Alva M. Autry, 92, will be held 2:00 PM Tuesday, May 19, 2020, at Croley Funeral Home Chapel with Reverend Madison Caffey officiating. Interment will follow at Cherokee Cemetery. A visitation will be held from 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM prior to the service.
Alva was born in Del Rose, Texas, a community near Gilmer on November 15, 1927, and passed away on Saturday, May 16, 2020. She attended Gilmer and Dallas schools and El Centro College. Alva moved to Dallas from Gilmer just before WWII ended. Her first job was for Chemical Warfare Service, a Civil Service job, as an inspector at the old Austin Bridge building was converted into a war plant and they made incendiary bomb casings. This job is highlighted at the Old Red Courthouse Museum in downtown Dallas.
Several years later, Alva joined an organization called “Rosie the Riveter”, which is by and about women who worked on the home-front during WWII. Her story during these years was published and a copy is in the Gilmer Library. The name is, “Rosie the Riveter Stories, The Legacy Lives On.”
After the war ended, she went to work for Southwestern Bell Telephone, which is now AT&T. She held many positions as telephone operator, engineering clerk and marketing representative. She retired in 1984, then worked several more years for the Army and Air Force Exchange Service known as AAFES. Alva was a member of Hillcrest Baptist Church.
Alva is preceded in death by her parents, Mr. & Mrs. Otis Buchanan; husband, Art Autry; a son, Billy Wayne Brown; siblings, Clyde Buchanan, Arthur Buchanan, Clara Campbell, Dessie Green, Lula Williams and Mildred Rose.
She is survived by a niece, Pam Langford; nephew, Frank Gilmore and family; great nieces, Barbie Langford and family, Rhonda Langford and family; great nephew, Tony Langford and family and many great-great nieces and nephews.
Alva believed in giving back, and the last 19 years, she has volunteered as an Ombudsman at a nursing home and the De Soto Citizen Police Academy. She will be remembered as an upbeat, outgoing person that enjoyed life. She will be missed.