Emma Elizabeth Karnes Pottinger died August 25, 2019 at 102 years of age. She was the most senior member of the North Texas Home Economics Department. Her older brother, Dr. M. Ray Karnes was an outstanding alum for the North Texas Centennial.

She was born in Scranton, Texas in 1917 just before WWI, the fourth of nine children born to John Wesley (Wes) Karnes and Emma Elizabeth Bryant. She is survived by siblings Runelle Karnes Bowman of St. Petersburg, Florida, and Dr. Charles Karnes of Durango, Colorado, children Donald Leigh Shirley of Norwich, Connecticut, Moxie Ann Shirley Finster of

Hideaway, Texas,  Michael Stephen Shirley of Tyler, Texas and Linda Nell Shirley Frazier of Tyler, Texas eleven grandchildren and seven Great-grandchildren with a Great-great grandchild soon to be born.

Elizabeth married Lt. Moxie A. Shirley in August before Pearl Harbor. Classmates were killed at Pearl Harbor and the war felt close to home.

She married again in December of 1965 to Lott, Texas Postmaster, Claude Bryan Pottinger. A Chilton High School student from days of old wrote, "We have lost something special that will be missed"

She loved being a Golden Eagle from the Class of 1940 at UNT. To honor her custom homebuilder father, Home Economics classes received an annual project : design a home you would like to live in.

EXECPT

The year she retired... she assigned the class to design a home she would retire to. And she built it.

Everyone knew something special about Elizabeth just between the two of them. That was a quality that changed lives especially among her Home Economics students. Who knew that cooking and sewing could transform lives? It did.

A graveside service will be held in Denton this Tuesday morning at 10am at the IOOF cemetery. Memorial services are expected at several locations.  She asked that her home become a living museum. We will see. And she asked that a biography be written in her memory as well.

Donations to the North Texas Karnes-Bryant Scholarship are requested in place of flowers. https://unt.academicworks.com/ opportunities/6255