McKnight Bobbitt, Mattye M.

Mattye Mae McKnight Bobbitt died Monday, Jan. 16, 2006, surrounded by her family.

She was born Jan. 3, 1909 in Huntsville, Texas, the second child of Elwood Reed Lindley and Dora Lee Hoke Lindley.

She graduated in 1929 from Sam Houston State Teacher’s College in Huntsville and taught in public schools in that area until 1993 when she married Cyrus McKnight of Pampa, Texas.

The couple moved to Portales in 1946 where Mr. McKnight operated McKnight’s Welding and Machine Shop until his death in 1963, and Mrs. McKnight taught in the Portales Public Schools, first at Steiner Elementary and then at Brown Elementary. She obtained her master’s degree and a reading specialist certification at Eastern New Mexico University. She was a member of the First United Church of Portales and of Eastern Star.

After retiring in 1973, Mrs. McKnight moved to Seven Points, Texas, where friends and family said she enjoyed gardening and porcelain china painting. She married Otis Bobbitt in 1994, a high school friend whom she had not seen for more than 60 years. They lived in San Angelo, Texas, until his death two years later, after which she moved to Portales to be near her son. For the past four years, she had been living in Artesia.

She is survived by her son, Cyrus McKnight, DMD, of Artesia; her daughter, Margaret McLain, of Fremont, Calif.; her brother Elwood Reed Lindley Jr., of Santa Fe, Texas; two grandsons, and two great-granddaughters.