Nancy Jane Prior

Born on the 14th of January 1936 in Houston, Texas she was the only child of Rufus Hardy Carroll and Lillian Marie Carroll, and was a life-long resident of Houston.

Nancy attended Lamar High School and then graduated from The University of Texas at Austin, where she was a member of Alpha Chi Omega sorority. She moved back to Houston to raise a family and had a successful career in real estate after her children were grown.

She was an avid tennis player at both River Oaks Country Club and The University Club where she enjoyed playing with her friends and family. She was a volunteer for many years with the Assistance League of Houston and the Houston Zoo.

She loved to entertain her friends and family and was a wonderful cook and hostess. Most of all, she was a wonderful and loving wife, mother and grandmother. She was “Nana” to all of her grandchildren and attended many of their school and athletic functions. She always put the needs of others before her own as evidenced by her loving care of her mother, Marie, in her home for many years.

Nancy was preceded in death by her parents and her loving husband, Thomas Gardner Prior. She was survived by her four children, Laura Byrd Herring, James H. Byrd, Jr. and his wife, Mary, John Carroll Byrd and his wife, Catherine, and David Fitzgerald Byrd; her three step-children, William Wilson Prior, III and his wife Melissa, Bailey Prior, and Lisa Prior; and her grandchildren, Alyssa Carmen Herring, Juliana Marie Herring, Carroll Grant Herring, Lauren Randolph Herring, Hy Fitzgerald Byrd, Charles Carroll Byrd, Matthew James Byrd, Ryan Christopher Byrd, and William Wilson Prior, IV.

Friends are cordially invited to a visitation from five o’clock in the afternoon until seven o’clock in the evening on Sunday, the 16th of May, in the Drawing Room of Geo. H. Lewis & Sons, 1010 Bering Drive in Houston.

The funeral service is to be conducted at eleven o’clock in the morning on Monday, the 17th of May, in the Chapel of the Church of St. John the Divine, 2450 River Oaks Boulevard in Houston, where the Rev. Reagan W. Cocke will officiate.

Interment will follow, via an escorted cortege, at Forest Park Lawndale Cemetery in Houston.

In lieu of customary remembrances, the family requests with gratitude that contributions in Nancy’s memory be directed to The National MS Society, Lone Star Chapter, 8111 N. Stadium Drive, Suite 100, Houston, TX, 77054.