Mrs. Irene Nevill Aby (July 11, 1896-1985) was a notable figure in dietetics, home economics, and education in Texas and served for ten years as the Home Economist and Educational Director at Bewley Mills in Fort Worth, Texas. She authored two of their cooking booklets, both titled, Better Bread Foods with Bewley’s Best Flour. [reddit]
As a young adult, Irene taught school while residing with her parents, John, a physician, and Nellie Nevill, as well as her younger sister Mavis, in a modest home at 620 West 9th St., Bonham City, Texas. [google maps] Irene obtained her B.S. in Home Economics from the University of Texas and went on to teach the subject at Sul Ross State Normal College in 1920 and 1921. Furthering her academic pursuits, she attained a master’s degree in the same field from Columbia University and engaged in additional studies at NYU. In 1924, Irene lectured to groups for the Texas Children’s Home and Aid Society of Fort Worth raising funds for helping crippled, illegitimate and deserted children. By 1925, she began teaching at the State Teachers College in Denton, Texas.
Around the age of 30, Irene married Hulette Fuqua Aby (1879-1935), an American football player and lawyer from Oklahoma. Hulette’s first wife passed away, and sometime after February 1927 he and Irene wed. The couple resided in Hulette’s home state, in a grand home at 1015 E. Woodward St., Tulsa, Oklahoma [google maps]. Living with them were Irene’s two step-sons, aged 21 and 17, and Lizzie Lewis, a 50-year-old servant from Texas. Unfortunately, Hulette passed away on October 4, 1935, and four months later, Irene’s sister also passed away in Bonham, Texas. Subsequently, Irene returned to Texas.
Between 1936 and 1939, newly widowed Irene Aby worked as a district supervisor for the WPA’s Emergency Education Project, part of the Federal Relief program aimed at assisting transients.
From at least December 1940 until 1950, she made her home at Fort Worth’s Crestwood Place Apartments while heading the Foods and Cookery Department, Texas Woman’s College, then ten years as Bewley Mills’ Home Economist and Educator. As part of consumer education for Bewley Mills, besides writing recipe booklets such as the above Better Bread Foods with Bewley’s Best Flour, Irene created dresses using flour sacks, showcasing them in her lectures titled “Feed Sacks to Dresses.” She even modeled a pastel blue evening gown made from a 100-lb flour sacks, proudly wearing it at formal occasions. During the 1930s and 1940s, such initiatives were a win-win: homemakers proudly used affordable fabrics and flour mills fostered their customers’ loyalty.
After spending a decade at the Bewley flour mill, Irene joined the faculty of Texas Southmost College in Brownsville in the fall of 1950. By at least 1955, she had returned to the hometown of Bonham, Texas. There, she kept active with club work such as the county’s Democratic Woman’s Club, the Parent-Teacher Association of her former high school, and serving as a sponsor for the Future Homemakers of America. Irene passed away in Bonham in 1985.
