Dr. Patricia Ward Wallace

Patricia was born on April 16, 1938, to Jessie Dawson and Nettie May Day in the small town of Streetman, Texas. Streetman was a town of little prospects having only one street. As a young child, she worked in the Dailey Bros. Circus with her father and her older brother Dale. While they tended to the horses and dogs, Patricia mastered trapeze and elephant-riding. After the untimely death of her father, Patricia was placed in the Methodist Home in Waco where she spent the remainder of her formative years as an orphan. School was her savior, especially Waco High School, where she won national debate tournaments, and graduated at the top of her class.

In 1954, she turned down a full debate scholarship to Baylor University to attend Southern Methodist University on an academic scholarship. During her time there, she was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa Society and Mortar Board and was a University Scholar. She pledged Chi Omega and remained active in the sorority for many years. Patricia continued to debate, and met David Ward, later to be her husband, as an opponent in the finals of a tournament. They married after graduation and moved to Austin.

Patricia entered the Masters Program at the University of Texas under the supervision of Dr. Robert A. Divine. She was recognized as a Woodrow Wilson Fellow and University Fellow and received her Master of Arts Degree in History in 1964.

Patricia paused her academic career upon the birth of her daughter Devon in 1966. Four years later, after her divorce, Patricia decided to pursue her PhD in History at the University of Texas under the direction of Dr. Divine and Walt Rostow, the former National Security Advisor to President Lyndon Johnson. With her young daughter in tow, Patricia spent a summer visiting Presidential libraries around the country researching what became her first book, The Threat of Peace: James F. Byrnes and the Council of Foreign Ministers. Shortly thereafter, she was recruited by Baylor University for a teaching position in the History Department.

Patricia spent the next 36 years teaching history to students at Baylor. In her retirement letter, she described her proudest accomplishments as “founding at Baylor a Phi Beta Kappa chapter, Mortar Board, the Baylor in London program and a Gender Studies minor.” While teaching, she also authored seven more books: Politics of Conscience, a biography of Maine Senator Margaret Chase Smith, two histories of the Methodist Home, four histories of Waco and McClennan County, including, A Spirit So Rare, A History of the Women of Waco.

Patricia’s influence on Baylor was not only academic. She was, sometimes by necessity, a zealous advocate for the equal rights of women. In her first year, she demanded and received pay commensurate with her male colleagues. While on track to becoming the first female tenured professor in the History Department, she realized that what she had been taught and what she was teaching, was the history of the white American male. Patricia created a women’s American history course and founded the university’s first gender studies program. With the creation of the Baylor in London study abroad program, Patricia developed a deep love of travel. She fulfilled her travel bucket list by visiting Russia, China, Australia, and Egypt.

Although her career was extremely important to Patricia, her small family was her priority. As a mother to Devon, she was always loving, supportive, encouraging, and available. She delighted in her grandchildren, Sam and Brynn and took them on wonderful trips and many adventures. When her son-in-law Mike Anderson was diagnosed with cancer, she moved in with the family to offer her assistance and loving support. She later made Houston her home, where she loved the theater, the art museums and the seafood. Hers was truly a life well lived.

Patricia is preceded in death by her brother Dale Dawson, and is survived by her daughter Devon Anderson and grandchildren, Sam Anderson and Brynn Anderson. A private graveside service will be held in Waco at a later date.

The family welcomes donations as an expression of sympathy to Patricia’s favorite cause, Justice Forward, in lieu of flowers. (www.justiceforwardtx.org ).