Mary Wanda Godwin

Long before San Marcos, Texas, became famous for aqua shows, a hometown girl named Wanda swam so often in the refreshing spring-fed river in the 1930-40s that she may have been the city’s first mermaid.

The playful waters of the San Marcos River lived in the heart of Mary Wanda Bragg Godwin until her death in Austin on March 11, 2026. She was 95.

Spending childhood hours in the river every chance she got imprinted in Wanda a sense of confidence and an independent streak that sprinkled some spunk into her personality. The waters also floated her to Army Air Corps airman Jackie O. Godwin, her future husband and forever love.

Wanda was born on Feb. 7, 1931, in San Marcos to Vernon and Johnnie (Head) Bragg. She grew up with two older brothers and two younger sisters. Everyone knew her family because her father was a longtime barber in downtown San Marcos.

Wanda was an excellent student and became a lifelong bookworm. She also learned an encyclopedia’s worth of cooking knowledge from her paternal grandmother, Lil Ma’am. She could take a chicken from the yard to the table as easily as she could make fluffy dinner rolls rise, all when just a young child.

Music first became her joyful companion during childhood. She accompanied her father as his dance partner to Gruene Hall and many other legendary Hill Country honky-tonks. But her musical tastes were much broader than just country. Soul man Ray Charles; Wanda Jackson, queen of rockabilly; and Victor Borge, comedian of the keyboard, were lifetime favorites.

After Jackie met Wanda at the river in the late 1940s, he asked her to go on a “Dutch” date to a dance. “I don’t operate that way,” she told him bluntly. He was so entranced by the blue-eyed, brown-haired beauty who stood her ground that he figured out how to scratch up enough money to pay for both of them on a new airman’s meager salary. Wanda stole his heart completely.

They married in 1949 in San Marcos and soon embarked on a beloved peripatetic lifestyle courtesy of the U.S. Air Force. The first stop was Waco, Texas, where Wanda went to business school and worked for a distribution company. When Jackie was ordered to Okinawa during the Korean War, Wanda moved back to San Marcos. Their oldest son Jay was born there in 1952 while his father was more than 7,000 miles away across the Pacific Ocean. Wanda managed in her trademark capable manner and told Jay he had to be “the little man of the house.”

Jackie’s career with the Tactical Air Command soon took the young family to McChord Air Force Base near Tacoma, Washington. Two more beloved sons were born there, Robert Wayne in 1954 and John Patrick in 1956.

Wanda was clearly boss of the house. She knew how to stretch a dollar while keeping life fun with storytelling, trips to the library, and homemade cooking (she always had first dibs on the fried chicken wing parts). Her family loved being her test kitchen, especially on homemade pizza night.

And then they were off to Germany for Jackie’s assignment at Spangdalhem Air Base. The Godwins chose to experience local life by renting the top floor of a house in a small German village and by shopping at the local meat market rather using base facilities. The home overlooked a farm and the Godwin boys got to watch the wheat harvest with farmers who let them drink watered down beer. Wanda’s youngest sister, Nonnie, joined the Godwin family for life in Germany.

Their next move was to Leicester, England while Jackie worked at RAF Bruntingthorpe. Daisy and Jack, the neighbors, often served tea for the Godwins and Nonnie, and treated them to fish and chips wrapped in newspaper. Everyone enjoyed excellent homemade pasties and clothing made by Wanda, and Jay even learned to knit.

Jackie’s 30-year career ended up taking the family on to North Carolina, Hawaii, Texas and Maine. Wanda competently managed the family during Jackie’s two deployments to Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War and various other assignments that took him away from home. Jackie was promoted with high marks through many Air Force jobs dealing with jet engine mechanics until reaching the highest rank for an enlisted officer, chief master sergeant. That meant Wanda had social and community duties of her own, such as head of the NCO Wives Club. She fully embraced and loved the Air Force life and was an integral part of Jackie’s success. She made many lifelong friends along the way and always filled the family home with souvenirs and local cuisine from their latest hometown.

Starting when the children were school age, Wanda volunteered countless hours as one of the Red Cross’s legendary “Gray Ladies” at Air Force base hospitals, providing nonmedical work that was greatly appreciated by staff and patients.

Wanda’s wide travels and curiosity about the world greatly enhanced her interest in food. Any food (except cantaloupe) drew her rapt attention, and any type of cooking and baking drew her praise. Her collection of kitchen whisks nearly outnumbered her cutlery. Wanda’s favorite leisure activity was reading cookbooks from cover to cover and adding them to her large collection. A cookbook was just as delicious as chocolate to Wanda. She was a foodie before foodies were cool.

Playing Scrabble, doing crossword puzzles and watching the Jeopardy! game show also were cherished pastimes for Wanda.

Wanda also loved to shop for clothes, and not just for herself. Once she bought a pair of irresistible green high heels for her sister Nonnie even though Nonnie was only 4 years old.

After retiring from the Air Force in Oklahoma City, Wanda and Jackie moved to Iran where Jackie worked for Lockheed in Tehran. They came back to the U.S. just before the fall of the Shah in the Iranian Revolution in early 1979. They settled outside Rogers, Arkansas in a house that Jackie built of stone and timber in the beautiful Ozark Mountains. There, Wanda again had a place to swim to her heart’s content in Beaver Lake with her new local friend Evelyn.

But after 10 years, they felt a family pull toward Jackie’s home state of North Carolina. They settled in the small town of Morganton and became a two-person wonder team that shaped a very strong local Habitat for Humanity program. Jackie worked six days a week heading up the building efforts while Wanda cooked meal after meal after meal to keep many volunteer homebuilders nourished.

Books were very important to Wanda and Jackie. Everyone knew that Wanda Godwin never went anywhere without a book with a folded Kleenex as a bookmark. They supported the Morganton public library by sorting books for and running the annual book sale. They got a kick out of collecting innumerable banana boxes from local grocery stores Food Lion and Harris Teeter (Wanda’s favorite) to store the books. Wanda bought every Charles Schulz cartoon Peanuts book she could find. And she read every Travis McGee book by John D. MacDonald, every alphabet mystery by Sue Grafton, anything written by Molly Ivins, and every Mitford Years book by Jan Karon, who was born not far from Morganton.

Wanda and Jackie moved back to Texas for their golden years, settling in Temple to be an hour’s drive from their sons Jay and Robert in Austin and Robert’s daughter Sarah. They also enjoyed visiting Great Falls, Montana to visit their youngest son and his wife, Susan, and their two Big Sky grandchildren, JR and Lindsey. In Temple, their routine was to go out to lunch every day and hit garage sales. They joined St. Francis Episcopal Church, and Wanda baked a regular birthday cake for the church’s Tuesday Solace group that provided respite care for people with dementia.

After Jackie’s death in 2010, Wanda moved to Austin.

By the end of Wanda’s long and winding life, many people in many places knew one thing for sure: Wanda Godwin always made the world a far more interesting and tastier place.

Wanda was predeceased by her husband, Jackie; her parents, two brothers, and two sisters; and many extended family members. She is survived by her three sons and their wives; her sister, Nonnie Nutting of Austin; and three whip-smart grandchildren.

The family thanks the staffs of Maravilla at the Domain and Magnolia Hospice for the good care they provided to Wanda in her last years.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Central Texas Food Bank, your local Habitat for Humanity chapter, or your local public library.