Candice Ann Nichols

Candice was born April 6, 1948, in Taylor, Texas, to Charlcye and Edwin Krieg. As a girl, she went by the nickname “Candy,” and inscriptions in her high school yearbooks attest to the sweetness of her nature. She graduated from Pflugerville High School in 1966, where she had won a District Literary Award. She continued to read and, with her vivid imagination and creativity, to write novels her whole life, although she was never ready to let anyone read them.

Candice worked a number of years as a clerk at State Farm Insurance in Austin, but her calling seemed to be caring for others. She left that job to be a full-time homemaker, and after her two children left home, she went back to work caring for infants at a daycare center. Later she was a kind companion and caregiver for several elderly individuals at their end of life, and she was a devoted attendant for her own father and mother in their last years.

Candice relished passing on stories about the Krieg family on her father’s side and the Wilson family on her mother’s, as well as the local lore of the rural central Texas towns where she or her parents had lived — the Cele Store crossroads, Pflugerville, Taylor, and Thrall. She was proud to serve as treasurer for the annual Krieg Family Reunion for the last 15 years or so. She always remembered everyone’s name, and who was related to whom. She was one of the kindest and most loving people one could ever meet. She was always eager and willing to lend a helping hand and she never knew a stranger.

Candice enjoyed movies, romance novels, and spooky stories; classical and popular music; animals, especially cats and dogs; roses and sunflowers; ideas about how to be a better person; German chocolate cake and soft-serve ice cream; drives in the country; and family get-togethers. She loved raising her kids and helping with her grandkids, and swapping stories with her mother, Aunt Idale, and Aunt Billie around the kitchen table.

Candice is survived by her two children, Melissa Saphir and husband Bill, Jon Nichols and wife Victoria; five grandchildren, Brandon Nichols, Idale Saphir, Otto Saphir, Andre Cavazos, Katiana Wilson and husband Trevor; three great-grandchildren, James Wyatt Nichols, Logan Nichols, and Luke Wilson; her former husband and lifelong friend, Clide Nichols and wife Charlotte; and two brothers, Dan Krieg and wife Kathy, and Mike Krieg and wife Carol.

Memorial donations in Candice’s name can be made to any animal welfare organization.

Visitation: 6-8 p.m. Friday, February 4, 2022 at Cook-Walden/Capital Parks Funeral Home and Cemetery, 14501 N Interstate Hwy 35, Austin, TX 78753

Funeral service: 10 a.m. Saturday, February 5, 2022 (interment immediately following) at Cook-Walden/Capital Parks Funeral Home and Cemetery, 14501 N Interstate Hwy 35, Austin, TX 78753.