Lula Maye Walsh

With great sadness we share the loss of our beloved mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother who departed this life on April 26, 2022. Lula was born in Amarillo, Texas on July 29, 1930 during the Great Depression and The Dust Bowl of the Southwest. She was the second of 4 children born to Verdi Valentine and Earl Malachi Cummings. She had an older sister, Una Faye, a baby brother who died shortly after birth, and a younger sister, Christine. She grew up on a farm outside Panhandle where she learned to drive a tractor at the age of 9, was active in 4H, took voice and piano lessons, and dreamed of being an opera singer. She grew up in the Church of Christ where she learned to sing acapella in four part harmony. She spent many Sundays and holidays after church with her numerous aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents from the Cummings, Stamps, and Slagle families. As a teenager, she bought War Bonds and wrote encouraging letters to military men serving overseas during World War ll.

Lula Maye graduated from Panhandle High School at the age of 16 and was voted the prettiest girl in her class. She won a voice scholarship to OU where she studied for a year and was featured in the Sooner Yearbook as a campus beauty. Then she returned to Panhandle, Texas to marry Charles Gibbs. The marriage was rocky from the beginning, but Lula Maye continued to further her education at Amarillo College and Draughan's Business College. After almost 5 years of marriage there was a nasty divorce, but not before Mellanie, Lula's first daughter was born. Her daughter propelled Lula Maye to become stronger than ever. She was determined to rise up against the adverse circumstances of a divorce and being a single mom in the 50s. Lula Maye got an executive secretarial job and moved to Amarillo not long after Mellanie was born.

She always dressed and coiffed herself, with style and class, and made sure her daughter was also. She was a hair model on the side, kept up her singing, and eventually landed a job at Pantex, a military institution outside Amarillo. In 1956 a handsome, blue-eyed Captain in the Army came to work at Pantex and all the women were fawning over him. She paid him no mind, so of course he asked her out. They were engaged two weeks later and married shortly after. The Captain was Thomas Francis Walsh, who with his family, as a five year old, had come through Ellis Island as an Irish immigrant. Before coming to Pantex, he had been in World War II, in Japan, and the Korean War. He was a widower whose first wife, Jean Hoefling had passed away from tuberculosis in 1952. From that marriage he had a son named Thomas Henry who came to live with his dad, Lula Maye, and Mellanie after Lula Maye and Tom got married. Lula Maye embraced Tommy immediately. She gave him a home which he has always cherished,and Tom took on Mellanie as his own. Not long after, Lula and Tom had a son, Michael, and Lula Maye began her fabulous life with a blended military family that traveled the world. After living in Amarillo, they were briefly in Maryland before the family moved to Germany where Christina, another daughter, was born in Heidelberg. They were in Karlsruhe for 4 years when Tom became a Major. Then Tom was sent to work for the 5th Army in Chicago. The family lived in a suburb there for 3 years, and the last child was born, Kathleen.

After that, the family was stationed in Istanbul, Turkey for two and a half years. It was a most exotic experience as Tom was an advisor to the Turkish Army. There, like everywhere else she went, Lula Maye planted flowers, and immersed herself in the language, culture, and history of the place. She was also an avid photographer who chronicled everything; good, bad, and ugly.

She was active in several women's clubs where she was usually the president, the historian, or the social and entertainment director. She loved playing cards, board games, and croquet; anything to keep the party going. After Turkey, the family was in New Jersey for a year and a half before Tom got his orders to go to Vietnam. Lula Maye and the children settled in Amarillo so they could be near Lula Maye's family while Tom was in Vietnam for a year.

In 1970 Tom retired from the Army as a full Colonel and started looking for his second career. He got a job in Dallas at the old Southland Life Building, so the family all moved to Dallas in 1971 after Tom and Lula bought their forever home in Lake Park Estates. They joined St. Bernard's Parish where Tina and Kathleen went through middle school, grand-daughter Layla attended for a while, and the family still has connections. Lula Maye taught music at St. Bernard's in the early 80s and sang in the choir for several years. Lula also sang in the Dallas Symphony Choir for a time,and Simon Sargon's Temple Emmanuel Choir.

Lula Maye became heavily involved in her local garden club and many gardening forums. She was part of a group that worked hard to keep The Dallas Arboretum near White Rock Lake. Lula Maye was also quite active for many years in the Lake Park Estates Neighborhood Association. She and Tom participated, and held offices in different retired military groups. In addition, Lula Maye and Tom joined a supper club that met regularly for a long time with many highly entertaining moments. Above all, Lula Maye kept her focus on the family. She was in the sports stands to cheer her children on in their various sporting events, including football and track for Michael; cheerleading and drill team for Tina and Kathleen. For many years she volunteered to help with the Bishop Lynch musicals as both her daughters, Kathleen and Tina, were featured in several. Through the decades she helped all her children navigate numerous trials and hurdles. She was at her best when we were at our most desperate.

Family was so dear to her. She loved going to family reunions and having her children join her in them. She enjoyed making craft items to sell particularly at the Cummings reunions.

After the children were grown, Lula Maye and Tom became quite active in the Irish American Society and the Rose of Tralee Organization. Lula Maye and Tom held many offices in both groups and were big promoters of the Irish American community in Dallas. Lula Maye was Irish Person of the Year in 2006, following her husband who was Irish Person of the Year in 1997. They also traveled to Ireland several times from 1986-2000.

Throughout their marriage, Lula and Tom traveled throughout the US and to many countries in Europe besides Ireland,including Holland, Spain, Italy, France, Austria, and Switzerland. They also went to the Holy Land twice. Their last trip together was to Lake Tahoe in 2004 to enjoy the scenery and a timeshare they had purchased. While there, they found out Tom had congestive heart failure and from then on, their lives slowed down considerably.

Lula Maye is survived by her five children, Tommy Walsh, Mellanie, and her husband Kevin Svoboda, Michael Walsh and his longtime partner Mary Beth Schaper and her daughter Laurel, Tina Walsh, Kathleen and her husband Don Stoll. There are four surviving grandchildren, Layla and her husband Steven Eakin, Austin Pooley, Brendan Stoll and Elena Stoll. In addition there are two surviving great-grandchildren Logan McRoberts, and Topher Lowe. One great-grandchild, Caleb McRoberts preceded Lula Maye in death in 2014.

Lula Maye was beautiful, talented, a singer, gardener, canner, organizer, leader, planner, history lover, photographer, genealogist, designator, and a seamstress who loved needlework. She was a night owl who hated mornings, said what was on her mind, and did not suffer fools. Above all else, her heart belonged to Tom Walsh who preceded her in death in 2011. She never was the same after that. He was her most devoted husband and champion. We pray now that she is at peace in her garden... finally at rest with her Irish husband.

A few years ago a young Irishman was introduced to one of the Walsh daughters as a daughter of Lula Maye. He quickly brightened up to remark, "Lula Maye, ahh, I sang a duet with her once. She is Legend!" That she was and forever will be.