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Hebert, Nettie Clarissa Kingsbury (Mrs. Martin)

9/1/1967

MRS. NETTIE CLARISSA (MARTIN) KINGSBURY HEBERT

June 9, 1877-August 1, 1967

Mrs. Nettie Clarissa Kingsbury Hebert was born on June 9, 1877 to the late Albert O. and Emma J. Kingsbury, in Missouri Valley, Iowa. After a lingering illness she was called home on August 1, 1967 and was buried by the side of her husband who preceded her some six years.

As a young lady she came to Louisiana with her family in 1893. They settled in the Big Lake Community, but soon the family came to Lake Charles to make their home. She received a good portion of her public school education in Iowa. But before her family left Big Lake she came to Lake Charles and lived in the home of the Willis Webers where she stayed while finishing her high school work and attending the Lake Charles Normal School, from which she received her teaching certificate.

For three years thereafter she taught school in Cameron and Calcasieu Parishes. She taught at Johnson’s Bayou, where she had to ride horse back each day to and from school; at Grand Chenier and at Hayes, La. It was during her teaching career that she met her future husband, the young Methodist minister Martin Hebert.

On July 18, 1898 she was married to the man she was to love and work with as a partner in the ministry for the next 50 years. They spent at least 25 years among the French speaking peoples of South Louisiana. A great deal of this time the family lived in New Iberia. After retirement they were needed at West Lake to reorganize the work there and spent 11 years in the retired supply relationship. During this time they built a lovely sanctuary. After two years with the Community Chapel, south of Lake Charles, they organized the Fairview Methodist Church in 1955 and built the church. They did not finally retire from the active ministry until 1957.

Through these long years of service she felt the call to serve as partner with her distinguished husband. Her minister husband’s call became her call to work with him. As God had called him, He had also called her. Her husband was able to distinguish himself in part because she handled so well all phases of a minister’s wife. She shared his responsibilities and prayed for him when he wrestled in his study with a subject he felt led to bring to his people on Sunday morning and was anxious that his message might inspire their people. She prayed too when he was called out at 2:00 in the morning to the bedside of one who was sick. When she could not be in the church service because she had to remain at home with a sick child, she prayed that God might use him to bless others.

For a great deal of that time they were paid what the treasury could stand each quarter of the year. They were very fortunate if paid by the month. Many times they wondered if they could get by until more money came in. But Mrs. Hebert usually made ends meet and kept her six little ones well fed and clothed as well as the other children of the church.

Her talents as a teacher and as a musician were often called for to strengthen the church school and to make more effective the worship service of the church. But she found time to join and to become active in the Order of Eastern Star.

Mrs. Hebert leaves six children: Lee Beverly Hebert of Bussels, Belgium; Guy Kingsbury Herbert, Lake Charles, La.; Martin Hebert, Jr. of St. David, Penn, Mrs. Vera Pulliam of Lake Charles; Miss Fern Hebert, Lake Charles; and Mrs. James N. Carlin of Houston, Texas. They had another son, Theodore Girard Hebert, who died in infancy. She also leaves 10 grandchildren and 12 great grandchildren and many other relatives and friends as she goes to join her husband in their reward.

Source: Journal Louisiana Conference, 1968; p. 220

By Paul Carroll and Hubert A. Gibbs

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Hebert, Nettie Clarissa Kingsbury (Mrs. Martin)