Eva Belle Noble

Eva Belle Noble, beloved wife, mother, grandmother, and great grandmother. December 5, 1943 to December 22, 2021.

On a beautiful December Day sparkling with sunshine our beloved mother and wife Eva Belle Noble closed her eyes and passed into eternity. As we held her hands, tears streaming down our faces whispering how much she was loved she suddenly slipped from our grasp. Attracted by the smiling faces and welcoming encouragement of loved ones that she has missed seeing for many, many years she slipped her hand into the small hand of her granddaughter and began running and skipping down the path that led to a laughing and exuberant family reunion. In a mountain meadow bursting with the scent of perfumed flowers, streaming with shafts of beautiful sunshine she was joyfully welcomed into heaven and the presence of God.

Eva began her story as Eva Belle Trask in the three-story red brick Municipal Hospital in Pawhuska Oklahoma. An Oil Boom Town made famous by Ree Drummond of Pioneer Woman fame. It’s also the home of a murderous past involving the Osage Indians. Fueled by greed that was fanned into all-consuming flames by vast oil riches discovered during the 1920s and 1930s. This heart-rending story is soon to be made into a Major Motion Picture by none other than Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio. Eva’s family, and now ours is inextricably linked to this story through her Great Grandfather A.W. Comstock who carried a bulldog revolver and represented the Osage Indians during this tumultuous history. Our family became honorary members of the Osage Nation and still retain Indian Head Rights because of their respect and friendship for this great man.

Eva was the youngest member of a family dominated by four brothers, Eugene, Bernard, Armand, and Homer. She is survived by a single brother, Homer Fincannon of Dallas Texas.

Eva’s early life was as tumultuous as the oil-boom Oklahoma town in which she was born. Eva’s mother Clarissa had suffered a series of emotional breakdowns likely brought on by her own cruel and mentally ill mother and was unable to care for Eva. So, Eva found herself passed from one family member to the next. Luckily it was through these relationships that Eva found a modicum of love and stability. It was because of these family arrangements that she inexplicably found herself residing in Skellytown a small community in the Texas Panhandle where she met the true love of her life and who would become her husband for over sixty-two years, Travis Noble.

They were married on a hot, dusty day in August 1960 and quickly discovered that life would not be easy for a boy only eighteen years old and his bride who was not yet sixteen. There were several individuals in that small Texas town who said there was no way that a boy of eighteen and his bride a mere fifteen years old would ever make a go of marriage. Of course, over sixty-two years later those nay-sayers are no longer alive so that we can all thumb our noses at them. I would finally like to state in this public forum, how wrong they were.

Of course, those nay-sayers were right in that marriage was not easy. It was difficult for a boy of only eighteen to find a job that would pay wages on which a young family could survive. Travis and Eva found themselves traveling from Texas to Flagstaff Arizona where they all but starved to death in search of a job before Travis’s mother Edith and older brother Ethan arrived to save them and bring them back to Texas.

Buena Vista Colorado and the Molybdenum Mines at Climax finally provided them with the foothold that they needed to begin thriving. Those early family years were filled with fun, laughter, and young children. Later Travis found a job with Transwestern Natural Gas Pipeline which brought them back to Texas and his family, they never looked back again. They spent over forty wonderful years in the small Texas town of Miami before moving to their final home here in Nixa Missouri where both their son and daughter reside.

That marriage of sixty-two years blossomed into a family tree that gave her a son and daughter, James and Cindy Noble of Nixa Missouri. Cindy Noble is in a committed relationship with her loving and kind partner of many years, Martha Belskey, and much like Eva and Travis, James Noble went on to marry the love of his life Kimberly Flournoy. They have three adult sons, Jeremy, Joshua, and Clint Noble of Sedalia Missouri who along with their wives Amanda, Kayla, and Jayme have had a total of seven children, Carter, Eli, Cohen, Liam, Cayden, Emsley, and the tiny button at the end of the rattlesnake rattler is Corbyn.

Eva through hard work, commitment and bucket loads of love had learned how to spin the straw and chaff of her early life into pure gold, a loving extended family full of warmth, laughter, and strong (some would say unbreakable) family bonds.

Eva Belle Noble was a hauntingly beautiful woman both physically and spiritually. Her Christian faith has been one of the hallmarks of her storied life and was prominent in the last moments of her life her on earth.

As her husband Travis, my sister and I sat around her bed in the small room at Mercy Hospital in Springfield Missouri Mom woke up for a brief period of time and quietly whispered in a halting, tremulous but clear voice.

I….. want…. a…. (Dad, Cindy, and I leaned in close to catch every word). I….. want….. a…. little…… and then she paused to take a breath. So, I leaned down and quietly asked her…. what do you want mom?

I…. want…. a ….. little…. peace and quiet.

She then looked at me questioningly and said in her halting voice… Would you please pray for a little peace and quiet for the world?

In honor of mine and my sister’s mother, and the beloved wife of my Father, her grandchildren, their loving wives, and her great grandchildren I would like to honor her last request on this earth and ask God to bring a little Peace and Quiet to this turbulent and fretful world. It is my mother’s hope that as human beings we can learn the magical trick she somehow mastered very early in her life and learn to spin the chaff and straw of life into loving gold.

Merry Christmas everyone and as Eva and Luke the Evangelist would like to see happen, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

Graveside services will be held at 11 am Wednesday, December 29, 2021 at Rosedale Cemetery in Nixa, Missouri with Mark Wright officiating.

Services are under the direction of Adams Funeral Home - Nixa.