Lenna Graves Bishop

Lenna Graves Bishop, 91, full of faith in her Lord Jesus Christ, passed from this life into the arms of her heavenly Father on August 15, 2022.

She was born Elynna Penelope Lee Graves in Wister, Oklahoma, July 24, 1931, to her father, Charles Benjamin Graves and her mother, Thelma Shippey Graves. When she was five years old, her mother Thelma died. Lenna, along with her brother Cleve and her sister Jimmie, continued under the loving care of her father as well as their maternal grandmother, Mrs. E.E. Shippey of Wister.

She was educated in the Wister public schools where she excelled academically and continued to live in Wister until, in her teen years, she spent considerable time with her father’s extended family in Alexander City, Alabama. She met her future husband, Calvin Thomas Bishop of Alexander City, during one of the periods when she lived there.

Following high school graduation, she entered Auburn University, in Auburn, Alabama.

Following their courtship and marriage in 1950, she and Calvin continued to reside in Auburn as they completed their degrees. She gave birth to their first child, son Leigh Carlton Bishop, in 1952 before the family moved to Houston, Texas where Calvin began his career as a landscape architect and Lenna devoted herself to their growing family. Her first daughter, Beverly Lynn Bishop, was born in 1956.

In addition to raising her children, Lenna devoted herself faithfully to children’s ministry in their church, Sharpstown Baptist Church. In 1969, she gave birth to her second daughter, Lane Amanda Bishop. Through her adult years, Lenna continued a devotion to art, schooling herself in both landscape paintings and portraiture, creating beautiful works primarily in oils and pastels. She relocated with Calvin to Starkville, Mississippi in 1984 where he served as a faculty member in the Department of Landscape Architecture, and she served on the staff of the university library. Following Calvin’s retirement, they returned once more to Houston, where Lenna and Calvin were faithful members of Second Baptist Church while frequently hosting visits from their adult children and their growing families of grandchildren.

Following Calvin’s death in August, 2017, and the coincidental flooding of their Houston home during Hurricane Harvey, Lenna resided with her sister Jimmie for a brief period in Fort Smith, Arkansas before they relocated together to Hurst, Texas to be nearer to extended family. She lived happily there, receiving frequent visits from loving and supportive children, grandchildren, and extended family until her death.

She is survived by sister Jimmie Alcyone Garner, as well as by son Dr. Leigh Carlton Bishop and his wife Mrs. Jody Paige Bishop, daughter Beverly Lynn Bishop, and daughter Mrs. Lane Amanda Ward, her husband Mr. Daniel Lee Ward, Jr., as well as grandchildren Aaron Abzal Ward, Matthew Calvin Ward, Joshua Charles Bishop, Jessica Anne Bishop, Mrs. Catherine Elizabeth Duffin and her husband Mr. Paul Francis Duffin, and Jordan Thomas Bishop.