Beloved Mother, Grandmother, and Great Grandmother, Willa Johnson Schweppe of Houston passed away on April 12, 2018. Willa was born on December 22, 1922 in Nashville, Missouri, the only daughter of Louis D. Johnson and Sadie A. Flaker. She married Joseph L. Schweppe on April 18, 1942 and they were married for 64 years before his passing in 2006.
Willa received an AE degree from Trenton Junior College, Trenton, Missouri. After receiving her degree, she taught for one year in a small one room country school up the hill from the farm where she was raised with her parents and paternal grandparents.
During her career she served as secretary for multiple companies including the Traffic Division of Reynolds Metals Company in Lister Hill, Alabama; Princeton Film Center, Princeton, NJ, a producer of training films for the military; Trenton Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Central Farm Products Company. She was Secretary to the Dean of the Business School at the University of Michigan. And in 1960, she began a long career as secretary, bookkeeper, office manager, and corporate secretary at Houston Engineering Research Corporation.
Willa was a deaconess in the Presbyterian Church in Pasadena, California. She was a member of First Presbyterian Church in Houston, Texas and a long time member of the former Fellowship Class. She was a Circle Leader and volunteer with Operation I.D. and a member of the Blue Bird Circle for 8 years, working as a volunteer at Methodist Hospital.
Brazos Towers at Bayou Manor was her home and community for the last 11 years.
She is survived by her three daughters, Laura Thorp and husband Charlie of Houston, Anna Tollison of Clemson, SC, and Mona Depew of Huntersville, NC. Grandchildren April Kleinfeldt and husband Richard of Clemson, SC; Erika Roberts and husband Maurice of Houston; Aaron Thorp and wife Julienne of Austin, TX; Allen J. Depew and wife Brooke of Huntersville, NC; Sadie Perrotta and husband Vincent of Huntersville, NC; Jen Depew and husband Adam Jordan of Hingham, MA and Ryan Depew and wife Lauren of Marshfield, MA. Great grandchildren Marley and Reese Roberts, Annabel Kleinfeldt, Joseph Thorp, Jackson and Taylor Depew, and William and Alexandra Jordan.
A private service will be held in the Memorial Garden at First Presbyterian Church. In lieu of flowers a memorial may be made to the Wounded Warrior Project.
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