Martha Fraley

Martha Sue Fraley entered into eternal rest on November 7, 2022, at the age of 86 with her family by her side.

Sue was born on August 31, 1936, in Roswell, New Mexico and spent her childhood in Toyah, Texas and Long Beach, California. After the death of her parents, Edna and Lee Schooler by the age of 9, she moved back to Toyah with her grandmother and eventually they moved to El Paso, Texas. She graduated from high school at the age of 16 and immediately started college at Texas Western College, now known as the University of Texas at El Paso. She graduated in 1956 as the first women to earn a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering at Texas Western. Sue was employed at White Sands Missile range where she assisted with the calculations for missiles and participated in the test firing of those missiles.

In August of 1957, she was introduced to Bill Fraley, who went on to become the love of her life. They were married on November 10, 1957, in El Paso, Texas. The newlywed couple moved to San Antonio, Texas so Bill could attend Trinity University on a football scholarship. Sue found a position at Lackland Air Force Base to continue her work in engineering. After the birth of her first daughter, she felt that being a mother was the most important job she could do and stayed home to take care of her family. After her second daughter started preschool, Sue took a position at Eisenhauer Road Baptist School and became the teacher of the bluebirds. For the next 30 years, she continued at this school moving from preschool age to pre-kindergarten. She loved teaching this age group as they were curious and eager to learn. For the last few years of her teaching career, she moved to Crestview Baptist School and taught kindergarten and still kept the bluebird class name. She retired at 65 to stay home with her husband.

Sue loved to sew, do needlepoint and crewel work. She sewed clothes and uniforms for her family and put in that loving touch that only a mother can do. Reading was a favorite pastime, loving mysteries, historical fiction, romances, history, and biographies. As she put it, she never found a book she didn’t like. The knowledge that she gained from reading was shared with others. On vacations, she always learned about the history of the area and encouraged her family to do the same. Musuems were top on her list to visit. Music held a special place for Sue. She enjoyed classical, big band, opera, 50s, some country and soft rock. Her favorite singers were Johnny Mathis, opera singers Mario Lanza, Pavarotti and Placido Domingo. She loved singing her favorite children's songs with her classes. During the spring and summer, she would spend time watching car racing, Indy and Nascar. The Indianapolis 500 and Daytona 500 were her favorite races. She dreamed of being in the pits and seeing how the cars engines worked.

She supported her children in all their endeavors and took great pride in their accomplishments. Family was extremely important to her as she lost her family early in life. Pets were considered family and she loved and lost many throughout her life with each being well taken care of for the time that they were here with her. She loved people, was a good listener and helped many to find their direction in life. Family was more than just blood related; she adopted others to be part of her family and loved them as her own.

Sue is preceded in death by her husband Bill Fraley. daughter Cheryl Fraley, parents Edna and Lee Schooler, and brother Kenneth Schooler. She is survived by her daughter Debra Fraley Buckles and husband Guy, brother-in-law George Fraley, many nieces and nephews, her adopted family: Wes and Eda Clark, sons Jeff and Stephanie Clark, Jim and Kathleen Clark and grandsons James, Johnny, Jacob, Austin and Kyle, nephew Darnell (Darrin) Nelson.