Palmer June Wallace

She was preceded in death by her parents, Edwin Palmer and Margaret Alma Anderson; her four older siblings, Don, James, Mary and Alma Ruth; and her husband of 67 years, Teddy Paul Wallace.

June was born into a Texas Panhandle farming family during the Great Depression and Dust Bowl, an experience that led her to value family, hard work, and homegrown tomatoes and peaches. Her five children grew up happily knowing that any road trip would include the family station wagon stopping at a roadside farmstand for them.

June attended Lubbock High School and Texas Tech University, where she met and as a young bride of seventeen, married Ted on October 22, 1950. She was his partner and support while in the Air Force, medical school, and with his family medicine and neuropsychiatric practices. This took her to San Antonio, Biloxi, Galveston, Fort Worth, Lubbock, Borger, Amarillo, Austin, Houston, and finally retirement in Sisterdale, Texas. While raising five children, June found time to serve in her church as President of the Women’s Missionary Auxiliary. She was an active member and officer of the Women’s Auxiliary of the Texas Medical Association, serving twice as its state president.

June loved Easter family reunions, dark chocolate, and reading, and she never missed an Anderson Family Christmas. As a wife, mother, and grandmother, she was always ‘game’ for adventure. She and Ted traveled to Taiwan, Hong Kong, Scotland, England, Alaska, and Hawaii; explored the Florida Keys and the Intercoastal Waterway with their grandkids on their boat; rode motorcycles with Ted and their sons; flew in Ted’s plane; and worked alongside him to design and build a family cabin when she was in her late seventies.

June (Mema to her grandchildren) will be remembered by three generations for her grand tea parties where she presided as ‘Queen,’ her coveted banana pudding, her intentional expressions of interest and care for each of their lives, her love for her nieces and nephews, and her genuine love for Christ. She was a devoted student of Scripture and attended Bible Study Fellowship until age ninety. June was also a prayer warrior and, in recent years, helped establish a weekly prayer group at The Towers. She delighted in sharing her faith and lived it out through service to her family, showing hospitality to pastors and missionaries, and supporting several worldwide ministries. She leaves her children with memories of their mother standing at the kitchen sink singing her favorite hymns, as well as loading them up in the family station wagon to attend Sunday church, Wednesday Prayer Meeting, and Vacation Bible School.

She is survived by her children: Linda June Calhoun, Paula Fay Cairns, Teddy Paul Wallace, Jr., Stephen Don Wallace, and Larry David Wallace, thirteen grandchildren, and twenty great-grandchildren (with another on the way), for whom she prayed faithfully.

June never ceased expressing her love and thankfulness for family, friends, and caregivers; all of whom are blessed to remember and celebrate her well-lived life.