Vicki Lavon Wallien

A Celebration of Life will be held on Saturday, December 15, 2012 at 2:00 p.m. at Hillcrest Baptist Church with Jim Wilkerson officiating. Burial will follow at Lawnhaven Memorial Gardens. Arrangements are by Johnson’s Funeral Home.

Vicki was born on February14, 1943 at the Dale Mabry Air Base Area Command, Station Hospital, in Tallahassee, Florida to Idohla Marie (Bell) Hoover and Howard Orville Hoover. Her father’s grandparents settled in and were farmers in Indiana. These great-grandparents were Pennsylvania Dutch immigrants (German ancestry from Pennsylvania). Mother’s grandparents were immigrants from Germany and Scotland. All had farms and were also butchers by trade.

Vicki’s family sold her mother’s farm and home place in Indiana and moved to California in 1952 where she attended grammar school and high school. She graduated from California State University at Los Angeles with a Bachelor of Arts in Elementary Education. In December 1980, Vicki graduated with honors from Eastern New Mexico University with a Masters of Education and later earned 14 post graduate hours in Early Childhood and Reading.

She married Gary Wallien on January 28th, 1964. This marriage was for 38 years and ended on March 14th, 2002 on the event of Gary’s death. Vicki and Gary had two sons, Eric and Andrew, and three grandchildren, Andrew, Erica and Gary.

Vicki is survived by sons Eric and his wife Kimberly and three grandchildren, Andrew, Erica and Gary, and a great-grandson, Preston; Andrew, and a brother Tony and his wife Jill, and a niece Angela in Omaha.

Vicki taught in public schools for 29 years, 18 ½ years in San Angelo and in Blackshear for Kindergarten for two years; and 13 ½ years in First Grade at Bradford Elementary. She also taught Kindergarten for six years in Bovina, Texas and three years in First Grade in Clovis, New Mexico. Vicki retired from public school in December 2009. She loved children and worked with them a great deal of her life. During the first retirement year, she volunteered at Shannon Medical Center and the Adult Literacy Council which she truly enjoyed.

Due to her husband’s work and other moves, she called seven different states “home” but truly enjoyed Texas the best.

Contributions can be made to Hillcrest Baptist Church, the Adult Literacy Council, or the American Cancer Society for research as she developed a rare form of cancer which was very aggressive and not detected on an exam.