Alice Jacqmin
1923-2017
Alice Ehrlich Jacqmin of Sugar Land, Texas passed away peacefully at home Wednesday, April 5, 2017. She was born in Flandreau, South Dakota on January 15, 1923 to Earl and Fae Ehrlich Wheeler. After graduating from Gallia Academy High School, Gallipolis, Ohio, in 1940, Alice attended Miami University in Oxford, Ohio for two years. Then, like many young woman during that period, she left college to help with our country's war efforts. In 1942 she was hired as a junior chemist at the General Chemical Defense Company Point Pleasant, West Virginia, TNT manufacturing plant. There she met her future husband, Harris John Jacqmin. They were married in Gallipolis, Ohio on October 15, 1943. The couple moved to Princeton, New Jersey, where Alice worked as a sales representative for Proctor and Gamble. In 1947 Harris took a job with the Shell Oil Company. The Company transferred the couple to several of their oil refineries including Shell Oil's refinery in Deer Park, Texas. There, Alice discovered her passion for social causes when she became active in the League of Women Voters in their campaign to end the poll tax in Texas. In 1960 they moved to Westport, Connecticut where Alice continued being active in the League of Women Voters and the YWCA. In 1970 when they were transferred to Houston, Texas, Alice decided to resume her academic career and enrolled in the University of Houston. She was in the Honor Society Phi Kappa Phi and in 1974 she graduated cum laude with a BA in English Literature. After graduation she temporarily relocated to Austin and earned a Master of Library Science degree from the University of Texas in 1975. After receiving her MLS, she started working at the Houston Public Library's Fine Arts Department. After her retirement they moved to Bastrop, Texas. Alice immediately became active in her new community by becoming a literacy volunteer and tutor. She and Harris formed the Jacqmin Foundation which focused primarily on funding projects for small public libraries in Texas. One of her favorite projects was providing funds for the Jacqmin Reading Room in the Bastrop Public Library. Alice is survived by her son David Jacqmin and his wife Maxine, daughter Deborah Jacqmin Kramer and her husband Gregory, granddaughters Hilary Jacqmin, Laura Jacqmin and Allison Kramer, her sister Dorothy Swearingen, sisters-in-law Marguerite Soffa, Mary Jacqmin, Carolyn Wheeler, Stella Wheeler, and numerous nephews and nieces. The family wishes to express its gratitude to the many devoted caregivers who cared for Alice in her final years. Donations may be made in her memory to the Fort Bend Women's Center, http://www.fbwc.org/get-involved/donate/.