Colleen Rae Stockman of De Leon, Texas, was born in Salem, West Virginia, on August 6, 1926, to Edgar and Lena (Benedum) Fairbee. She died on August 23, 2021, at Comanche County Medical Center.

Colleen was a shining example of health and energy in old age until she developed pneumonia.  Those who knew her often expressed their delight with her, for she "lived to give." Her passions of cooking, baking, gardening, entertaining, and quilting blessed many friends and family.  She enjoyed helping her husband on the farm and raised goats and chickens at various times.

Throughout her life, she gave her time to Bible studies and church-related activities. In her younger years, she was a children's Sunday school teacher. When she was older, she taught a class for older women. She loved to play games at the Senior Center and with her sister, Mary, at home. Dominoes, Bunko, Skip Bo and Rummikub were favorites.  She always had a quilt in the frame and her quilting room was lined with various fabric and partially-pieced squares. She often watched "Little House on the Prairie" and "The Waltons" as she quilted.

In her final weeks, as her illness increased and earthly life became a struggle confined to hospital walls, Colleen transferred her desire for joy in this life to a greater desire for joy in the next. She insisted that we, her family, must let her go. Although the last few weeks of her life may have been among the most difficult for her, the truth of 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 burned within her.  It is underlined in yellow in her well-worn "Women's Devotional Bible."

"Therefore, we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not now what is seen, but on what is unseen.  For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."

Colleen was preceded in death by a son, James Earl Stockman, who died at the age of 15 in 1972, by a younger sister, Charlene Clark, who died October 2002, at the age of 58, and by her husband, Marc Stockman, who died in November of 2019 at the age of 95.

She is survived by two younger brothers, Thomas Fairbee of Colorado, and Lincoln Fairbee and wife, Doris, of Florida; a younger sister, Mary, of De Leon; by her two sons, Hal Stockman and wife, Dianne, of Elko, Nevada, and Matt Stockman and wife, D'Liza, of De Leon; by a daughter, Marcia Hartness and husband, Kirk, of Pea Ridge, Arkansas; by nine grandchildren and fifteen great grandchildren. We thank God for the legacy she left us to follow.

A celebration of Colleen's life was held Tuesday, August 31, 2021, at 1:30 p.m. at De Leon First Baptist Church with Brother Daniel Harper officiating.

Memorial suggestions are De Leon Senior Center at 133 North Ballpark Loop, De Leon, 76444, or to the charity of your choice, in memory of Colleen.