Sammye Laine Dees

Funeral services for Sammye Dees, 85, of Nacogdoches, will be held at 2:00pm on Saturday, June 19, 2021, at Laird Funeral Home. Interment will follow at Shady Grove Cemetery.  Visitation will be held from 5-7pm on Friday, June 18, 2021, at Laird Funeral Home.

Sammye, daughter of Joseph Jesse Foote and Ida Pearl Stripling Foote, was born in Nacogdoches, Texas on December 16, 1935. Sammye grew up in the Shady Grove area and studied grades 1-8 in Martinsville. She then transferred to Nacogdoches and graduated in the Class of 1954. After High School she enrolled at SFA and graduated in 1958. She was an accomplished volleyball star throughout her school years. With her degree in hand, she left Nacogdoches on a bus bound for Houston in search of a job.

Her first job as a secretary to Charles R. Brown at Brown & Root started her storied career as a landman in the booming oil and gas industry. She worked for many companies in this developing field and helped open doors of opportunity for women in the industry. After her retirement in 2001 she consulted for another decade.

She met the love of her life, Roy R. Dees, in Houston, Texas and married him on December 23, 1961, at Shady Grove Baptist Church in Nacogdoches, Texas. Sammye worked hard with her husband to take care of her family and raise their son. Together, with long hours and a lot of miles driven, they developed their son’s high school agricultural project into the family ranch Double R Dees Charolais.

Sammye is survived by her son, Roy Reed Dees II and her grandchildren, Justin Dees, Cody Dees, Jacob Dees, Olivia Dees, Ella Dees, and Maria Dees. She is preceded in death by parents; Joseph Jesse Foote and Ida Pearl Stripling Foote; her brother, Jerry Lynn Foote; infant brother, A.J. Foote; and husband, Roy Reed Dees.

Those serving as her pallbearers will be Dennis Stepp, Wes Marti, Bobby Watts, Justin Dees, Cody Dees, and Ryan Frala. Honorary pallbearer will be lifelong friend Dave Chaulker.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. www.jdrf.org

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