Page 14 - Foy

I have visited with ELOUISE many times and she attended the Cisco Foy Reunion
a few years ago. ELOUISE has a string of filing cabinets in her home with thousands
of records and she can remember and retrieve information from those cabinets faster
than I can with my computer. That does not say much for technology but says a lot
about ELOUISE.

ELOUISE has a biography write up in Marquis Who’s Who in America and is a
charter member of the AAUW, which stands for American association of University
Women. Below is just a small discussion of ELOUISE’ involvement in FOY
research.

BIOGRAPHY OF ELOUISE BEARD SMITH
FOY DESCENDANT

Born in Richmond, Fort bend County, Texas in 1920, Elouise Beard was fortunate to
find herself in the cradle of Texas History. Lee Roy Beard and Ruby Myrtle Foy
Beard lived across the Brazos River from the site Stephen F. Austin’s Fort Bend.
Austin’s group, The Old Three Hundred, lived at Fort Bend when he brought them
to Texas. This early Texas house where the Beards lived in 1919 with son Leldon
Foy Beard, was where Elouise was born. Another son, Robert Lee Beard was born
there as well. She grew up there secure in a loving, happy family, going to Texas
Women’s University after high school graduation.

After working in the East National Bank in Rosenberg she married Omar Smith, had

three children, Mary Jeanne Smith Cherry, Don Alan Smith, and terry Omar Smith.
After living in Pecos, Texas and in San Antonio, Texas the Omar Smith family settled
in Bryan, Texas in 1947. Omar and Elouise were owners of a chain of Dairy Queens.
They had ties to Texas A & M University in College Station, Texas where Omar, an
A & M graduate, coached the Men’s Tennis Team for 15 years. Texas A & M
University named their new Tennis Complex “The Omar Smith Tennis Center.” Both
Terry and Don played Varsity Tennis at Texas A & M University. Daughter Jeanne
graduated from Southern Methodist University. Omar passed away in 1981.

With the children grown and time on her hands Elouise began to question her parents
about their roots. Both of them grew up in Limestone County, Texas, also a cradle
of Texas History. The old Fort parker site of an Indian raid where Cynthia Ann
Parker was kidnaped is between Groesbeck and Mexia in Limestone County.

Elouise had only known two grandparents, Ruby Foy Beard’s mother, Louisa Choate
Foy and Lee Roy Beard’s father, Oscar Appling Beard. Since nneither parent knew

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