Iris Virginia Nicholson

Iris Virginia Nicholson

Mrs. Iris Virginia Nicholson peacefully left us Thursday morning, November 30th, 2023, in her home, as she wanted, surrounded by family. Iris was born August 22, 1923, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. She spent the majority of her childhood in Texas. As a young woman, she fell in love and married Sgt 1st Class Richard "Tommy" Esslinger; but was soon widowed after he was killed in action in Italy during World War 2. A few years later, she met the man who would love and care for her the rest of his life, Roy Woodrow Nicholson. She met his siblings and knew this was the family to which she should belong, and they married shortly thereafter. She and Roy spent the years raising their three children in Texas City, Texas. They later built a home in Alta Loma, Texas, where they resided for many years and continued their membership with First Baptist Church of Alta Loma. Her husband, Roy, passed away in 1984.

Shortly thereafter, she joined her daughter, Lee, and her family in Oxford, Mississippi where she enjoyed watching her youngest grandchildren grow into their teen years. After many years in Oxford, Iris moved to Clarksville, Tennessee when Lee and her family had the opportunity to move there. She loved living in Clarksville and had many neighbors she treasured deeply. Iris attended First Baptist Church while there and was very active with her Sunday school class.

When she was 97 years old, Iris decided it was time to quit living on her own and moved into her son John's home in Georgia. After some time in Georgia, she spent over a year in the Brandon, Mississippi area with Barbara Nicholson and her family there. She later made her home with her granddaughter, Robin and her family in Louisiana with Iris’s daughter-in-law, Peggy and her husband, Gary nearby, until the time of her passing.

She was an avid reader of the Bible, as she felt it was "a precious act of obedience". Iris was well into her 76th reading of the Bible, from front to back, at the time she fell ill. Even then, family members read the Bible to her from the bedside. She loved the Lord and wished that everyone would develop a personal relationship with Christ Jesus.

When people learned that Iris had reached her 100th birthday, they always congratulated her on her “achievement.” She did not see it that way as her long life caused her to suffer outliving her entire family and Roy’s entire family who were all dear to her. She endured outliving all of her friends, her husband, her beloved daughter-in-law, Sandra L. Nicholson and her son, Roy. Grief was a too-constant companion of hers as she lived out her days, but her grief was lightened by the many other people in her life.

She leaves behind her children, John Edward Nicholson and his wife, Sharon, Lee Nicholson Hall and her husband, Tim and Roy Nicholson, Jr.’s wife, Barbara. She also leaves behind 11 grandchildren, 29 great-grandchildren and 13 great-great-grandchildren. Pall Bearers will be Joshua Nicholson, Jackson Dyke, Jason Dyke, Mitch McNatt and Alan Nicholson.

She will be greatly missed. She was quick to remind everyone that her passing was to be a time to celebrate and rejoice, as anyone who knew her quickly learned how much she longed to see her Savior and to at last be within heaven's gates and restored to the ones she loved.

The following arrangements have been made for Mrs. Iris Virginia Nicholson, and all are welcome to celebrate her life with the family:

Visitation with the family will be from 5:00 – 7:00 p.m. Thursday, December 7, 2023 in the chapel of Hayes Funeral Home, 10412 Highway 6, Hitchcock, TX (409) 925-3501.

Funeral services will be 1:00 p.m. Friday, December 8, 2023, at First Baptist Church of Alta Loma, 5400 FM 646 Road, Santa Fe, Texas. Interment will follow at Galveston Memorial Park Cemetery.

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