Halsey (Bascom) Tear

Halsey Bascom Tear began dancing a jig with her loving Savior and Lord Jesus Christ in the evening hours of November 14, 2022. She succumbed to lung cancer after a truly gallant battle with the disease.

Born in Connecticut on October 26, 1950, she spent the first years of her life in Bronxville, NY, the village her parents had grown up in. In 1956, her father began working for Intercontinental Hotels, and his first assignment was to do site supervision for construction of a hotel in San Salvador, El Salvador. She began elementary school at the Escuela Americana, where subjects were taught in Spanish and English at the same time. So she became fluent in Spanish.

The next assignment was Puerto Rico, where the family lived on the beach. Although a latchkey kid, she had permission to use the beaches and pools of the neighborhood resorts in Santurce. She attended the John Robinson School for third and fourth grades.

She moved back to Bronxville for the fifth grade and finished high school there. During the summer of 1967, she attended Mount Hermon School in Massachusetts and King’s College, Cambridge, England studying English History.

She studied Painting and Sculpture at Carnegie Mellon University, but finished with a self-written degree in Meso-American Archaeology from Syracuse University (1976).

The summer of 1969 she alternated between attending debutante parties in Chicago and doing sound for rock concerts in New York State. One gig was Woodstock, where she was photographed by Time magazine (that photo plus a fresh one were included in Life magazine in a “Where are they now?” follow-up story 20 years later).

She married Tony Krzczuk with whom she had a son, John, and lastly, the Rev. Raymond M. Tear in 2019. Deciding to count the years of their marriage in Doggy Years, she claimed they were married 23 years.

In the 1970s, she bought a DB6 Aston Martin, got involved in the Aston Martin Owners Club, and took over editing the Club Quarterly. She got rid of the mimeograph machine and switched to offset printing, which enabled the use of photographs. The redesign earned her and Krzczuk the Elisha Walker Trophy for greatest contribution by a member to the Club. Her son, John, was born 10 weeks early after a two-day ride in their DB4 convertible from Lime Rock Track to Virginia Beach, where the couple was then living. She had a life-long affection for Aston Martins and was still a member of the AMOC at the time of her death.

Halsey moved to Texas in 1984. With Joan McCollom she opened an advertising agency. Kinky Friedman was one of her clients, and she photographed Prince Charles, now King Charles III, for another client.

The down economy of the 1980s finally killed the agency, so it was time to live on the beach again, this time in Corpus Christi. Her editing skills were recognized by the publisher of Fast Lane, Teen Age and Corpus Christi Monthly. While her name didn’t appear on the masthead, she did eventually meet the publisher’s wife, whose name did appear there.

Halsey got herself back to Kerrville and was hired to create a volunteer base for the Kroc Center when it opened in 2010. She began with a handwritten list of misspelled Thanksgiving helpers and turned it into a throng of 183 trained and eager vols. She was even offered a position at the Philadelphia Kroc, but turned it down for love of Texas.

Her father got her involved with data entry for the family business, the Wharton Esherick Museum in Valley Forge, PA. She could work in Texas and yet be useful in the quirky studio/home museum on the Philadelphia Main Line. Esherick was her step-grandfather and was known to his peers as the “Dean of American Craftsmen.”

In her latter years, she and husband Ray settled down to a quiet life of home, gardening, family, a bit of travel and many church activities. She was a charter member of Christ Church, Presbyterian in Kerrville.

She is survived by husband, the Rev. Raymond M. Tear; son, John Krzczuk; daughter-in-law, Blue; grandchildren, Sebastian and Anishka; step sons, Robert Tear (Katie) and David Tear (Heather); and step-grandchildren, Graham and Lillian.

A service of Witness to the Resurrection will be at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, December 3, 2022, at Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church located on Hwy. 39, just west of Ingram, Texas.

For those wishing to make memorial gifts, the Christ Church Presbyterian, Kerrville building fund, or The Pregnancy Resource Center in Kerrville would be Halsey’s suggestions.

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