Tressa Davis

Notes:

Tressa Davis Bass
April 27, 1913 to March 9, 2004

March 13, 2004 Eulogy by Everett Davis, nephew that she raised as her own son following her parents death.

Today we are gathered here to celebrate the life of Tressa Davis Bass. Many here have the privilege of knowing her for years in many varying types of relationships.

Some of us may know her as Mom, Mother-in-Law, Grandmother, Great-GrandMother, Aunt, Great�-Aunt, Sister-in-Law, Neighbor, long time friend, and the list goes on and on.

In the 90 years of her presence with us, she bestowed the best she had to offer to everyone she encountered.

All who know her know of her deep and abiding trust in Jesus Christ because she shares it with everyone she meets. That is nothing new for her.

Several years ago quite unexpectedly in a conversation with another saint of God at church I related that my family came from Quanah, Texas. This lady explained that she and her late husband were ministers in Quanah before coming to West Texas about 65 years earlier, when they began founding and establishing churches across the area. The lady asked if I was related to the JC Davis family there. I replied that I was his grand-son.

She became quite excited. She knew my father, and indeed, the whole family. She asked about everyone, and finally about Aunt Tressa. When I told her that Aunt Tressa had raised me from a small child, her eyes sparkled. She told me of her friendship with Aunt Tressa as they had known each other in their teens through the time she and her husband pastored her church in Quanah.

When I told her Aunt Tressa was in Lubbock, she was ecstatic. She went on to relate and remember their deep Christian friendship decades earlier. Afterwards, she and Aunt Tressa visited a number of times remembering wonderful experiences they shared in Christ, over 70 years ago, and catching up on a life-time of experiences in-between.

I remember literally thousands of things that over the years we have shared. I remember as a very young child somehow knowing the words to virtually all the verses of just about any hymn you would find in the church hymnals. Aunt Tressa loves to sing. As a child at her apron strings, I was there as her songs filled the atmosphere around her. She would open the kitchen window and her voice of praise and worship filled the neighborhood. If she were outside hanging the laundry on the clothes line, standing at the sink, ironing clothes, cleaning the bathroom, cooking, or whatever.... there was a song in her heart.

When I was a boy here, attending school, I would walk home and I would hear her singing several houses before I reached home. Many of you remember as well..... Whether it was There's Power in the Blood, The Old Rugged Cross, I Saw the Light, Will the Circle Be Unbroken, Amazing Grace, A Mansion Just over the Hilltop, I'll Fly Away, Blessed Assurance, What a Friend We Have in Jesus, Just as I Am, In the Garden, Nearer My God to Thee, It Is Well with My Soul, The Lords Prayer, How Great Thou Art ..... and hundreds of others throughout the years..... One was always there.

What was her favorite..... Hard to say it's not the one on her lips at the moment. Curtis told me that last week she was sitting in her living room, .... Singing to The Lord. That figures.... it's who she is.

Aunt Tressa knows, and made sure that I know too, that we are created by God, made in His image, after His likeness. We are created then as eternal beings, just as God is eternal. We will exist forever somewhere, and we by the grace of God, have a choice as to where. I don't have to tell you what her choice is. Her life does it so eloquently.

In her 90 years here, I know just from talking with one of her early life friends, she had settled that issue at least 75 years ago in her life.... perhaps even much earlier in her childhood. I know personally in the last 50 years that I have shared with her, she has never wavered in her faith. Were she speaking directly to you now instead of me, she would invite you not to leave this building without making the same decision to serve Christ and accept Him personally. I also invite you to.

Perhaps you have noticed that I keep saying she is, not that she was. Last week Tera and my family physically moved out of our old home into a new one. This week Aunt Tressa did that spiritually. I clearly understand what she taught me regarding being absent from the body, means being present with Christ. It's where she is today, and where we all will be someday by the grace of God ...reunited with her.

Aunt Tressa is a spiritual giant and a prayer warrior with an indomitable will and faith of iron that now has joined a choir in Heaven. I can almost hear some of the other choir members in the back saying as they hear her voice resound in Heaven; Hey, who's the new kid up front? I too stand before you as a Christian, in no small part to the witness of her life before us, as do many of you already. She is a prayer warrior that knows how to praise God and share her faith with others.

Aunt Tressa is more than any Aunt could ever be to me. She is Mom.

She raised me, as she helped raise my father before me. She is more to many of you as well.

Those of you who know her truly understand what that means. Over the years she has taken in many strays and nourished them back to life and health.

Aunt Tressa has never been wealthy, but she is rich beyond her dreams. When she met someone who was in need, she met their need as best she could. If they were hungry, she sat them down at the table and fed them til they were filled. If they were thirsty she offered them some of that �instant iced tea� that she was famous for. You remember, it was the tea that would almost completely dissolve in water, but stick to the ice cubes.... If the person were ill, she would call and cheer them up, and tell them she had been praying for them. If they were grieving, she would console them with something in the Bible. If the person needed clothing, she would generally find them something that she had put away for such a time.

What was it the master said about this type of person?

Matthew 25:35
35 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: 36 Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. 37 Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? 38 When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?39 Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? 40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

Yes, she is rich and we all the more, because we have been graced by God with her presence in our lives. Today we celebrate her life and her.... how would she sing it ... her �Victory in Jesus�

I am absolutely certain when my turn comes, and I am about to enter Heaven, while I am just a short distance away, through the open windows in Heaven, I will hear Aunt Tressa singing, and know that I am almost home.

Family/Spouse: Henry Bass. Henry (son of Henry Isom Bass and Mary Evaline Jones) was born on 21 Feb 1913 in Brown County, Texas; died on 10 Aug 1998 in Lubbock, Lubbock County, Texas; was buried in Peaceful Gardens Memorial Park, Woodrow, Lubbock County, Texas. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Henry Claude Bass was born on 20 Sep 1937 in Bailey County, Texas; died on 19 Jul 1997 in Lubbock, Lubbock County, Texas; was buried in Peaceful Gardens Memorial Park, Woodrow, Lubbock County, Texas.
2. Delmer Troy Bass was born on 29 Mar 1940; died on 25 Nov 2020.