Bucilla Frances Corbett

Bucilla Frances Crouch Corbett was born May 26, 1921, in Ashley Heights, North Carolina, to Chesley and Ina Thompson Crouch. She died peacefully in hospice July 21, 2013, in Seminole, Florida. A graveside service will be held later at Ashley Heights Cemetery in Hoke County, North Carolina. She is survived by her three children: Deborah (Dale) Gaudier, Kerrville, Texas, Mary Corbett, Nacogdoches, Texas, John Corbett, Sewanee, Tennessee; four grandchildren: Emily Gaudier, Edward Gaudier, Bonnie Roberts, and Susan Roberts; and four great-grandchildren; several nieces and nephews as well as three brothers, Chesley Crouch, Hardin (Juanita) Crouch and Ernest (Marie) Crouch, all of North Carolina. She is predeceased by one grandson, Daniel Gaudier, her parents, and sister. Bucilla came to Florida with her family in 1961 and settled in Madeira Beach and except for completing her bachelor's degree, she lived in the Tampa/ St. Petersburg area for the rest of her life. She returned to college in her 40's, first taking classes at St. Petersburg Jr. College before moving to Texas and earning a degree in Psychology from the University of Houston. She returned to her beloved Florida and worked for the Florida Dept. of Vocational Rehabilitation until her retirement in 1992. After divorce, political activism led her to testify before a Congressional committee on the needs of displaced housewives. That led to changes in Federal and state law, including a shortening of the length of time one must be married to qualify for spousal Social Security benefits. She was proud to be a founding member of the Older Women's League and was a former member of the Daughters of the American Revolution. One of her great joys in life was reading and she instilled that same love in her children. In fact when her family moved to Florida, she choose to live on Madeira Beach in no small part because it had the only public library on the beaches. She was one of the volunteers who worked in the 1960s to raise funds for an expanded public library on the beach and that building stands today in part because of her efforts.