90 years ago today – June 16, 1929 – AJ Yeoman was born in Long Beach, California. She would go on to marry Bill Yeoman and become the matriarch of University of Houston football.
Alma Jean Vance grew up in Bryan, graduated at 16, and then went on to UT to earn an art degree. She married a West Point grad and eventually became a coach’s wife. Described as a “classy, sweet, kind, and loving” woman by those that knew her, AJ was as much a part of UH football as any of the coaches.
Mrs. Yeoman also forged her own identity and became a pillar of the Houston community, spending considerable time volunteering and raising money for Houston-area charities. She was the Gulf Coast regional director for Cerebral Palsy, worked with the March of Dimes, and was a Boy Scout den mother among other charitable activities.
Her family described her as someone that “would never say “NO” to an organization who requested her time and her talents” and that she gave of both willingly. To that end, alongside Dena Lewis, she was presented with the UHAA Chair’s 2006 Distinguished Award for “exemplary service and generous contributions” to the school, the highest award given to non-alumni.
AJ was married to Bill Yeoman for 64 years before she passed away on January 3, 2015. The Bill & A.J. Yeoman Fort Bend County Endowed Scholarship Fund lives on in her honor.
