Mary Cecile Chambers was born in 1887 in Turtle Bayou, Texas, to Landon Gore Chambers and Charcilla Van Pradelles. She was the last of four children born to Mr. and Mrs. Chambers. Their first child, William Morton Chambers (1875-1878), died at the age of three; their second child, Albert Chambers (1882-1901), died at the age of 19; their third child, Robert White Chambers (1884-1958), died at the age of 74; baby sister Mary Cecile lived to be 83 years old.
In 1905, Miss Chambers, a stenographer by trade, purchased a home in Galveston at 1520 Market. The house is now known as the Grover-Chambers House; George Grover was the original owner of the house which he built in 1859. In the application for a Historical Marker, there is mention of a Lar oak tree on the property, which is considered the oldest on Galveston Island.
In 1969, a year before her death, Miss Chambers drew up her Last Will and Testament. In it, she bequeathed various sums of money to five cousins. She also bequeathed money to the Roman Catholic Bishop of Beaumont, TX, to be used for the benefit of Our Lady of Light Catholic Church in Anahuac, TX. The remainder of her estate was used to establish the Mary Cecile Chambers Scholarship Fund; she appointed Moody National Bank of Galveston as Trustee to administer the Scholarship Fund. Miss Chambers was clear in her wish to provide young men a higher education or vocational training to better their chances at gainful employment. She was just as clear that “intellectual as represented by high grades nor poverty shall be paramount qualifications to receiving a scholarship but rather the probability of practical benefit, taking into consideration good character, industrious qualities, and a desire to work and learn (and particularly a wholesome and positive attitude toward work) as well as general ability and financial need.” Additionally, it was her “earnest hope and desire” that the young men who benefit from this scholarship fund will voluntarily be willing to do for others what has been done for them, so that the work of the Fund may be carried on and enlarged.
Miss Chambers died in 1970 at the age of 83. She is buried in the Wallisville Cemetery in Chambers County, at the foot of her mother’s grave.
