Natalie Joyce Lange Bell

Natalie Joyce Lange Bell passed August 12, 2023.  She was born in Brenham, Texas on July 8, 1934 to Ella Marie and Louis Andrew Lange.  She was baptized, confirmed and married in the Zion Lutheran Church in Brenham following many of her family and her early farming ancestors. She graduated from Brenham High School in 1951 and attended Massey Business College in Houston.  On July 7, 1956, Natalie married her one and only true love, William Ulmer Bell.  They lived together in Houston for ten years and in Dallas for twenty-six years while raising their daughter, Cynthia Ann Bell. After the death of her husband in 1991, Natalie moved back to Brenham in 1995 and built a home on the same farmlands where she was born and raised, right down the street from her brother and across from the Zion Lutheran Church. She cherished being in the country surrounded by bluebonnets and her over one hundred-year-old oak tree.

During her time in Houston, Natalie was employed as a secretary at the Gulf Oil Corporation and later with Welex, a division of the Halliburton Company.  In Dallas, she was a manager of Network Services for The Association for Higher Education and later retired after eight years as the Administrative Assistant to the Headmistress of The Hockaday School. Natalie was very driven and had a keen eye for detail which was visible in her work life, personal life and in her pristine yard and home. She was a loyal and dedicated wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. She never missed mailing a single birthday or holiday card to her daughter, grandchildren or her eight great grandchildren. Natalie was compassionate, generous and incredibly proud of her family, friends and her beliefs.

Natalie was preceded in death by her husband of thirty-six years, William Bell; her parents, Ella and Louis Lange; her sister and brother-in-law, Irene and Stubbs Brown, Jr; her sister Dorothy Siebel and her nephews, James Brown and Nathan Siebel.

She is survived by daughter and son-in-law, Cynthia Ann and William Michael Ford of Midland, Texas; her three grandchildren, Kelly and her husband, Harrison Reese, of Midland, Texas;  Haley and her husband, Christopher Blonkvist, of Midland, Texas; Cameron and his wife, Katie Ford, of Midland, Texas;  her eight great grandchildren, Robert, Frances, and Maggie Cate Reese; Ford, Mary Emma and William Blonkvist; Annie and Jack Ford; her sister and brother-in-law, Margie and David Rountree, of Houston, Texas; her brother and sister-in-law, David and Sandra Lange, of Brenham, Texas; her brother-in-law, Lonnie Siebel, Jr., of Houston, Texas and her numerous nieces and nephews. 

A Memorial Service will be held Wednesday, September 13, 2023 at the Zion Lutheran Church at 10:00 a.m. In lieu of flowers, the family has requested a donation be sent in her memory to the Zion Lutheran Church at 1800 FM 2679, Brenham, Texas, 77833.

Funeral arrangements have been entrusted to Memorial Oaks Chapel, 1306 West Main St., Brenham.  To post a tribute to the family, please visit www.memorialoakschapel.com.