Stella Victoria Stoffel Bryant

Stella V. Bryant, who raised 10 children while following her Air Force husband to duty stations around the globe, went to sleep with what she thought was a case of the sniffles early Friday, May 31. She never woke up. Stella, 92 years old, died on her terms, in her own bed, without beeping hospital machines and invasive tubes. Free-spirited Stella appreciated the work of medical professionals, including those in her own family, but preferred to spend her later years at home. She died 20 years after the death of her husband, John H. Bryant Sr., who also died at home.

Stella, who had a previous history of heart ailments, had an appointment with a cardiologist this week to discuss some earlier “cardiac symptoms,” but refused to see a doctor any sooner than her scheduled appointment. “Well,’’ she told one of her daughters, “I can’t live forever.”

Stella, a native Southern Californian born in Los Angeles on April 12, 1921, was viewed by her children as a modern-day saint who never uttered a profane word. She enjoyed puttering around her Allandale neighborhood garden, protecting her flowers and plants from the chill of Austin winters and the heat of the summers. She lived with the youngest of her children, Cathy, an adult with special needs, who brought Stella her daily newspaper and a blanket when it was chilly. Stella, in turn, bathed, clothed and fed Cathy after her daughter emerged from the kitchen cupboard with the day’s chosen meal items in hand.

After losing her husband, Stella found solace in frequent visits from her children, both those in Austin and the ones who had moved to her own native land of Southern California. She hesitantly took up residence in the “pa-pa” chair enjoyed by her husband, where, remote in hand, she followed the exploits of her favorite baseball team, the San Diego Padres, as well as the two baseball Texas teams and any team that had former Padres players on its roster. She took pride in her ability to master her digital video recorder, which she begrudging accepted as a replacement for stacks of old VHS cassettes that featured her favorite soap operas, sitcoms like “Two and a Half Men,” and baseball games. She also mastered a series of camcorders, which she used to document holiday gatherings and her finest garden blooms. Her early TV camera work gave birth to what we lovingly called the “mama shot,” when she inadvertently left the record button on and captured fast-panning shots of the floor.

For most of her life, Stella was a full-time mom, but she greatly enjoyed re-entering the work force from 1972 to 1984 in the business office of the Texas House of Representatives. She loved catching rides to work with the ladies and attending holiday parties in their homes.

Stella, always proud of her Native American heritage, was a part of the San Juan Capistrano Mission Indians of Orange County. (As in “When the Swallows Come Back to Capistrano”). She was the daughter of Encarnacion Serrano and Emil Stoffel Sr.

As a child, Stella attended the school at the San Juan Capistrano mission, where she was baptized. She later was graduated from Oceanside High School, where she won awards for being the fastest typist, then worked as a linotype operator for the Oceanside Blade-Tribune.

Stella told stories of nighttime rooftop vigils, peering through binoculars watching for enemy planes after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. She met her future husband while selling war bonds around the corner from the downtown Oceanside USO.

Stella is survived by nine of her 10 children, John Bryant and wife, Lynn, of Carlsbad, CA, Elizabeth Bryant Fletcher and husband, Taylor, of Murrieta, CA and Atlanta, GA, Tommy Bryant and wife, Yvette, of Poway, CA, and Stella’s Austin children, Robert Bryant, Patricia Bryant Romike and husband, Randy, Steve Bryant, Bill Bryant, Margaret Bryant and Cathy Bryant. Her son, Jim Bryant, died in November. Stella is also survived by her two remaining siblings, Tom Stoffel and wife, Charley Ann, of San Marcos, CA and Vivian Stoffel of Temecula, CA as well as 14 grandchildren, 10 great-great grandchildren, three great-great-grandchildren, and numerous nieces and nephews.

Friends are cordially invited to a visitation with the family from six o’clock until eight o’clock in the evening, on Tuesday, the 11th of June 2013, at Cook-Walden Funeral Home, 6100 North Lamar Boulevard, Austin, Texas.

Graveside Services will be held at forty-five minutes passed ten in the morning on Wednesday, the 12th of June 2013, 1520 Harry Wurzbach, San Antonio, TX 78209.

Condolences may be sent to www.cookwaldenfuneralhome.com