Wanda Joe Williams Lary

Wanda Joe Williams Lary, age 82, left her family and friends on this earth to be with her Father and Savior in Heaven on April 2, 2019. Funeral services will be held at 10:00 a.m. Saturday, April 6, 2019 at Scott’s Funeral Home, with Rev Keith Dyer and Rev. Joe Loughlin officiating.  Burial will follow at Ater Cemetery.  Visitation with the family will be from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Friday at the funeral home. Wanda Joe Williams Lary was born in Ralls, Texas, the oldest child of Cap and AthaLee Williams.  Childhood during the Great Depression, was full of love, family, hard work, West Texas dust and good home cooking,  In the late 1940’s Wanda’s family moved to manage a family farm in the Wilson Bend Community near Gatesville. The first in her family to graduate High School, Wanda graduated from Gatesville High School, in 1954. She began college at Scott and White Nursing School in Temple Texas. Wanda married her lifetime partner, Belvin Ross Lary of Gatesville, June 8, 1955 at Hay Valley Baptist Church. They moved to Austin Texas, where with one year of nursing school, Wanda worked for St. David’s Hospital on 32nd street. In Austin their first and only child, Dolores Elaine Lary Fitch was born. Belvin and Wanda moved to Odessa Texas in 1962 where Wanda completed her RN at Odessa College. They moved again to Austin in 1963 where Wanda began her long career at St. David’s Labor and Delivery. In 1988 Wanda again returned to college, and earned her Bachelor’s in Health Administration at Southwestern University in San Marcos Texas. Wanda loved her sister nurses and friends, and the excitement of birth and new family Belvin and Wanda retired in 1996 and relocated to Belvin’s father’s farmland and the county of their childhood. They returned to their roots, fellowshipping again at Hay Valley Baptist Church.  Wanda was blessed with the energy of household boyhood, thru the adventures of her 3 grandsons, and enjoyed adventures in nearby Waco with them and her daughter and son in law. Belvin and Wanda’s home along the Leon near Jonesboro became a new hub for activity, camping, fishing and hiking. All were always welcome. Upon deciding to pursue Nursing. Wanda’s father, who spent time in the VA hospital with Tuberculosis, told her to never go into a patient’s room without a smile on her face. “No one should every have a grumpy nurse”, he said. Wanda took that message to heart. She always focused on the patient, pleasant to their spirit and purposeful in her care. Belvin and Wanda loved to travel, seeing all 50 of the United States. It was during a church Mission trip they took to Japan in 1978, that Wanda’s father, Cap, passed away. It was thru that loss that Wanda became very interested and well-read in bereavement.  Then, Head Nurse of St David’s Labor and Delivery, she shared her knowledge and insight from that event in a very touching and effective personal ministry for new mothers of lost children and pregnancies.  She helped develop ground breaking culture and policy at St. David’s, and was loved and treasured by hurting mothers and fathers who didn’t get to bring their new baby home. She was loved by her coworkers and admired by the doctors that she assisted. Wanda had an appropriate boldness about her. She could see a need across the room and bee-line to the hurt and in moments intervene and minister. The Lary household would often get phone calls for Wanda. A toddler would have an earache, a friend’s parent would need hospice, a mother would need a doctor for her daughter. Always, Wanda would answer. Always she would care. Wanda was a Christian; she found Christ and was baptized as a young adolescent. She would be quick to tell you about the grace of God’s love and His gift in Jesus. She would dare you to challenge God’s greatness and love, citing the miracle of life in a baby, and the beauty in our world. Wanda left us to join her husband Belvin with Christ in heaven on Tuesday April 2, 2018.  She is survived by her daughter Elaine and son in law JohnEd Fitch, her  treasured grandchildren, John EdRyker and his wife Sarah, Davin Will Ross, and Brazos James Lary Fitch., Her Sister Dolores Davis, sister in law June Williams and nieces and nephews and their families who she loved to spend time with and entertain. Memorials may be made to Texas Baptist Children’s Home, 101 North Mays, Round Rock Texas 78664 or Hay Valley Baptist Church, Gatesville Texas.