Partners in life, death: Biggerstaffs’ opposing personalities complimented each other well

Margery and Cecil Biggerstaff went everywhere together.

“You never saw one without the other,” said James McBride, an old friend and fellow member of the 8th and Harrison Church of Christ.

Cecil passed away in early May. Though it came as a shock, Margery’s death on June 26 seemed a natural progression of events to many that knew them.

“She just went to sleep and never woke up,” said her youngest son, Craig Biggerstaff.

Margery was born May 28, 1924, in Harlingen, to Gus and Lottie (Davis) Demic. The Davises were farmers.

“Our family moved to Harlingen in 1919 before this was even a Valley,” said Margery’s sister, Nola Sue Cole.

By the time real estate developers started calling this river delta the Rio Grande Valley, the Demics were farming a piece of property along 13th Street, where Sun Valley Mall is now located.

The Demic farm backed up to one belonging to Margery’s grandparents. Her uncle, Wilder Davis, actually worked the cotton on the farms. Margery’s dad, Gus, ran a cotton gin and was a produce shipper.

“(Margery) was my older sister, actually eight years older than I am,” Nola Sue said. “So we didn’t have much in common until we grew up and were adults.”

When World War II came along, Gus was even busier.

“He worked very long hours so we would go down to my grandparents every night for dinner. My mother hated staying alone,” Nola Sue said. “He would come in about 2 in the morning, take us home and put us to bed.”

The next morning, it was back to the gin or the produce shed.

“It was a hard life, but it was a good life,” she said. “We didn’t know we weren’t rich.”

Margery was always involved in sports as a spectator or participant.

She stayed in town for two years after she graduated from high school before she went to college. It was all for her brother, David Demic, 17 years her junior.

“She worked at the telephone company to dress him and take care of him,” Nola Sue said. “He was the best dressed kid in all of Cameron County — and he still is. She really ruined him .… He’s always pressed and immaculate.”

Margery received her degree in physical education from Abilene Christian University, where she was a member of Ko Jo Kai sorority, whose name means “Little Club of Women” in Japanese.

After college, Margery got her first teaching job in Electra, Texas, northwest of Wichita Falls. It was there that she met Cecil.

Cecil Edwin Biggerstaff was also born into a family of farmers. He came into this world July 2, 1925, in Canton, Texas, located east of Dallas, to Cecil and Estella (Martin) Biggerstaff.

When World War II broke out, Cecil felt the call to duty.

“One of the things we found in the safety deposit box was a form where he tried to convince his parents to let him join up when he was still under age,” Brice said.

Cecil finally got his chance to join and served aboard the USS Randall.

After he was honorably discharged in 1946, he received his bachelor‘s degree from Austin College and graduated from East Texas State University with a master’s degree in math.

She and Cecil married March 23, 1951, in her parent’s living room. Brice came along in 1953 and Craig was born in 1956.

They moved to Harlingen the next year. Margery taught girls’ PE and coached all of the girls’ sports such as softball, basketball and track. Cecil began a series of jobs as principal of various local schools.

Growing up the sons of two educators wasn’t always easy, Brice said.

“It’s a little disconcerting to come around the corner of a hall and there’s your mother saying, ‘And what class are you supposed to be in right now?’

”

As a principal, Cecil worked year-round and the boys often found themselves stacking textbooks in the summer.

They also knew lots of teachers and administrators.

“If we got in trouble at school, word usually got home before we did,” Craig said.

Brice said their parents didn’t let on that they knew the whole story. “They just wanted to see what we would come up with,” he said.

“And, with our mom, there was none of this ‘wait until your father gets home.’ She handed out the punishment right then and there,” Craig said.

Cecil was principal of Coakley Middle School when Harlingen got flooded. Brice went with him as Cecil waded through the water to check on the school.

“He wanted to make sure nobody stole the typewriters,” Brice said.

They spotted a strange black bush that was moving weirdly. Upon closer inspection, they realized that it was a large group of tarantulas huddled on top of each other. Backing away, they went on to the school.

“Coakley had open halls and we saw hundreds of rattlesnakes lying in the halls, trying to stay out of the water,” Brice said. “We decided the typewriters were safe and went back home.”

Also in the deposit box was Cecil’s Red Cross volunteer armband.

“Whenever a hurricane was coming, we would evacuate,” Craig said. “But he would stay behind to open the schools as shelters.”

In the Biggerstaffs’ marriage, Margery was the sports nut.

“She knew the name of every player on every team and where they went to school,” Nola Sue said. “Not so much with Cecil. He liked to fish.”

“He taught me to fish and my son, Luke,” Brice said.

One of Cecil’s proudest moments came in the days before there were limits on catches. Brice has a photo of Cecil down at Arroyo City holding up two strings crammed with fish from that day, a huge grin plastered across his face.

Often, Margery would set up three TVs side by side and watch three games at the same time.

Craig’s wife, Mary Biggerstaff, said Margery would often talk back to the sets. “She was so much fun,” Mary said. “I’m sure going to miss her.”

“At her funeral, we joked about putting a big flat screen TV up and having a game on there,” Brice said. “She would have been a lot more comfortable that way.”

Margery was even more outspoken at sporting events.

During one football game, the Cardinal quarterback made a mistake, resulting in his being tackled. After the play ended, the player started walking back to the huddle. Margery yelled loud enough to be heard across the stadium, “I don’t know why you’re going back to the huddle. Nobody likes you anymore back there, either.”

“You always knew where you stood with Margery,” James said with a laugh. “She was quite a character, gruff one minute and funny the next.”

Cecil was quieter and loved to work with wood, Brice said.

“He was always fixing little things,” Brice said. “He built us a go-kart with a lawnmower engine — things like that.”

Cecil would build shelves and such things around the house, Brice said.

“I think he would have been happier working with his hands than doing school stuff,” he said. “Although, by all reports, he was very good at what he did.”

Cecil served as principal of elementary schools, middle schools and, eventually, Harlingen High School.

“He fought off going to the high school for several years until they forced him to,” Brice said.

After a year at the high school, Cecil retired from Harlingen school district with 38 years of service.

By the time Margery retired, she had been at it for 35 years, beginning in Electra and finishing in Harlingen, where she taught seventh, eighth and ninth grade.

Both were very active in their church, especially Cecil.

“He was the type that would give you the shirt off of his back,” McBride said. “There was nothing Cecil Biggerstaff would not do for a person.”

“He just wore himself out taking care of other people,” Brice said. “He was actually going around and taking care of people living in nursing homes or elderly people who lived around them.”

It was Cecil and Margery that Nancy Parsons called when her house was broken into. Cecil came over and boarded up her broken window. Parsons and Margery had met during their first year teaching in Harlingen.

“They were always helping people,” she said.

“Cecil was always so patient,” James said. “There was a blind woman in a nursing home and Cecil visited her every week and helped her take care of her business.”

Margery always gave Cecil a lot of support, he said.

“They were opposites,” he said. “A lot of successful marriages come out of that because one supplies what the other one doesn’t.

“He had endless patience and she did not,” he said with a laugh. “They complimented each other. I suppose it was like magnetism: opposites attract.”