GEORGEANNE ROGERS CHANCELLOR passed peacefully
from this world to the next on April 3, 2022, following
several months of declining health. She leaves behind
two children, nine grandchildren, nineteen great-grand-
children (soon to be twenty!) and two completely full
storage units, all of which she dearly loved! Interment
was at the Ft. Bliss National Cemetery in El Paso, TX.
Georgeanne was born on Sept. 12, 1931 to George Morrow
Rogers and Phyllis Dixie Williams in Ranger, TX. A
misspelling of her name on her birth certificate (not
unusual in Texas in the 1930's) caused her repeated
frustrations throughout her life when she married,
got a passport, driver's license and other documents.
She probably should have just gone by the "Georgiann"
that was on the certificate! Always a bright and
precocious child, she was able to skip right over
first grade due to having attended her mother's home
kindergarten class. After being moved to the second
grade, she met a young boy, George Chancellor, who
would many years later become her beloved husband.
Georgie and George's families' paths crossed many
times as they moved about during the 1930s and 1940s
due to the economic conditions in the Southwest during
the Depression. Eventually, Georgie's family moved
back to Ranger, Texas, where she graduated from Ranger
High School in 1948 and attended Ranger Jr. College.
She was the homecoming queen of Ranger College and
went on to attend Baylor University. She rightly
deduced that a career in theater was unlikely for
a young Texas girl in the 1940s and switched her
major to business, a move that allowed her to find
a job in New York City after graduation & be closer
to young George Chancellor, who was a cadet at the
U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
They married on June 26, 1954 at the First Methodist
Church of Ranger following George's graduation from
West Point and commissioning in in the Army as a
Second Lieutenant. Their choice of church, while
unlikely for two young Baptists, was probably due
to the fact that the back door of the church faced
the side door of Georgie's parent's house, making
it a convenient venue. There followed many happy
years of moving around the country and world,
interrupted only by George's tour in Vietnam. Many
of their Army years were spent at the Military
Academy at West Point where George taught chemistry.
Always a lover of books and reading, Georgie earned
a master's degree in library science while George
was getting his PhD in chemistry at Arizona State
University. She later worked as a librarian at
Ladycliff College in Highland Falls, New York. While
living at West Point, Georgie had the opportunity
to serve in many capacities, including entertaining
with style, hosting cadet families, cheering on Army
football, being president of the Officer's Wives club
and mentoring young officer's wives.
After George's retirement from the Army, they moved
to El Paso, TX, where Georgie would live for the next
40 years. She became a fixture in El Paso real estate,
becoming a realtor and broker and teacher at the real
estate college. She was also very active in the Texas
Republican party. She had very strong opinions about
politics and was not shy about sharing them.
A little over two years ago, Georgie sold her home in
El Paso and relocated to Utah to be closer to her
children and their kids and their kids, many of
whom live in Utah and Colorado. She had a ninetieth
birthday bash last July & her health began to decline
after that. Following surgery and several months of
rehab, her health deteriorated to the point that
nothing more could be done. She died peacefully early
in the morning of April 3, 2022.
Georgie was preceded in death by her husband George
and son Bill, her parents, and sister Gloria Rogers
Posas (RHS-1947).
She is survived by her daughter Anne (Kent) Bills &
son Wayne (Cory) Chancellor, nine grandchildren,
nineteen great-grandchildren, her sister Kathy Rogers
(RHS-1960, Harold Bowen), many nieces and nephews,
and one obnoxious and loud cat, Minnie, who is living
her best life with Georgie's oldest granddaughter,
Sarah, down in southern Utah.
HUSBAND: GEORGE WAYNE CHANCELLOR died of lung
cancer on Sept. 3, 1988 at Fort Bliss, TX.
He was born on Sept. 3, 1930 in Mullin, TX. In 1937
his family moved to Hot Springs, NM. He graduated from
Hot Springs High School in 1949. He entered the Military
Academy in June 1950 and graduated in June 1954. He
married Georgeanne Rogers of Ranger, TX in June of 1954.
George's first tour of duty was in Germany from 1955-58.
He served in B Battery, 14th Field Artillery Battalion,
2nd Armored Division, Baumholder, Germany, as battery
executive officer, battery commander and assistant S-3,
and also spent one year as aide-de-camp to the division
artillery commander, Seventh Army and the chief of staff,
Seventh Army in Stuttgart, Germany.
From 1959-61, George attended Purdue University in West
Lafayette, IN, where he received a Master of Science in
chemistry. In 1961, he was assigned as an instructor to
the Chemistry Department, USMA. Upon completing a three-
year tour, he attended the Field Artillery Career Course
at Fort Sill, OK, and Fort Bliss, & the West Coast Defense
Language Institute at Monterey, CA.
From July 1965-July 1966, George attended the Command
and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, KS. In
Aug. 1967 he returned to the Chemistry Department at USMA.
During this three-year tour, George was selected as a
permanent associate professor and executive officer of
the Department of Chemistry.
George received his Ph.D. in chemistry from Arizona State
University in Tempe, AZ in 1972 and returned to West Point,
where he served in the Chemistry Department until his
retirement in 1978.
George and Georgeanne retired to El Paso, where George
worked as a math consultant for the Texas Education Agency's
Region XIX Education Service Center from 1978-82.
In 1982 George joined Georgeanne in the field of real
estate and became very active in the profession. He was
on the board of directors of the El Paso Real Estate
Credit Union, served as vice-chairman and chairman of
the Board of Realtors Grievance Committee, and taught
several courses at the Academy of Real Estate. He served
as the local president and district director of the
Exchange Club of East El Paso.
Upon his death, the El Paso Board of Realtors instituted
a Memorial Education Fund in his memory with the University
of Texas at El Paso. This was a most appropriate tribute,
as, above all else, George was a teacher.
He is survived by his wife, Georgeanne; a daughter, Anne
Bills; two sons, Wayne M. Chancellor and William J.
Chancellor; and six lovely granddaughters.