Geneva Lisenbee

Geneva Lisenbee, age 96, died at her home in Artesia at 11:15 a.m. on January 25, 2014.

Geneva Ruth Hancock was bom August 28, 1917, at the family farm in the Hancock Community, Dawson County, Texas, to Benjamin Jackson Hancock and Annie Pearl Love Hancock. She had one older halfbrother, Herman Lee Buchanan.
Geneva grew up in the Hancock Community. She remembered working in the cotton fields and then walking to the store to get an ice cream cone. Even though the work was hard, she said, she preferred being outside to doing housework.

On December 12, 1937, Geneva married Alvis Lisenbee at the home of a Baptist preacher in Lamesa, Texas. Their first homes were on ranches and farms in rural Dawson County, where she remembered the dirt from the dust storms blowing through cracks and making it impossible to keep anything clean. Their first child, Joe Kenneth, was bom prematurely and died on October 10, 1938. Their second child, Alvis Lee, was bom December 3,
1940.

The family moved in to Lamesa in 1947 and then to Artesia, New Mexico, in 1948. Alvis was a gauger in the oil fields and Geneva was a housewife. Alvis, Geneva, and Alvis Lee spent many hours hiking and hunting arrowheads together. She enjoyed quilting, creating crafts, reading, solving crossword puzzles, and collecting red glassware and figurines. Over the years, several Pekingese dogs were her constant companions.
Geneva is survived by her son, Alvis Lee Lisenbee, and his partner, Kathleen Christopherson, of Rapid City, South Dakota her dear informally adopted daughter Elsa Jimenez, Elsas daughter Carolina and son Juan, his wife Peggy, and their children, Bo, Gage and Karsyn, all of Artesia and her sisterinlaw Gladys Gillespie of Artesia. Elsa and her family blessed Geneva with a second family and cared for her with much love during her last years.

She was preceded in death by her parents, her brother, Herman, her husband, Alvis, and her son Joe.
Geneva had been a member of the First Baptist Church since 1949.

Funeral services will be held at 10 a.m. Thursday January 30, at Terpening Son Chapel. Burial will be at Woodbine Cemetery.