Jewel Butler Heilbron, age 100, passed away peacefully on Friday, August 5, 2016 at her home. She was born in Drumright, Oklahoma on November 13, 1915.

Funeral services will take place on Monday, August 8, 2016 at 11:00 A.M. at Grace Presbyterian Church in Temple. Burial will take place on Tuesday, August 9, 2016 at 3 P.M. at Prairie Haven Memorial Park in Hobbs, New Mexico.

She graduated from Hobbs, New Mexico High School in 1932. She attended Southwestern Oklahoma University (Teacher’s College) graduating Cum Laude in 1936. While she was there, she was elected Homecoming Queen and Miss Southwestern. She was a teacher of Senior High School English in Oklahoma, New Mexico, and later Texas.

She married and had four children with Ned C. Butler. While raising her family, she was also a competitive duplicate bridge player and an active member of The Presbyterian Church. Upon her late husband’s death in 1963, she became CEO of Butler Construction Company, an oilfield maintenance company, that had been based in Hobbs, New Mexico, Snyder, Texas and ultimately in Abilene, Texas in 1954.

She moved to Dallas, Texas in 1975, where she became a member of The Highland Park Presbyterian Church. It is there, where she later met Colonel Edward Heilbron, and they married in 1987. Always an avid duplicate bridge player, she became a bronze life master in 1988. They moved from Dallas to Temple, in 1999, where they built their house at the age of 82. Jewel became a member of The Grace Presbyterian Church and later became director of bridge at The Sunflower Country Club.

Jewel is survived by her four children: Ned Butler of Brenham, Texas, Terry Butler of Aspen, Colorado, Karen Butler Foster of Wisconsin, and Gary Butler of Temple, Texas. She is also survived by five grandchildren and five great-grandchildren living in Texas, Colorado, Mexico, and California.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to: St. Labre Indian School, 2110 Overland Avenue, Billings, Montana, 59102, or Running Strong for American Indian Youth, 2550 Huntington Avenue, Suite 200, Alexandria, Virginia 22303, or Southwest Indian Children’s Fund, P.O. Box 906, Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, 74013. Jewel had helped support these organization’s for years.