Emily Jay Norred Walther

Emily Jay Norred Walther, age 72, died Tuesday November 29, 2011 in a local hospital, following an acute illness. Funeral services will be held at 11:00 A.M. Friday, December 2, 2011 at the First United Methodist Church of Temple with Dr. Thomas Allen and Dr. Tom Robbins officiating. Interment will follow at the Central Texas State Veterans Cemetery south of Killeen. The family will receive visitors from 7-9:00 PM Thursday, December 1, 2011 at Scanio-Harper Funeral Home. She was born on April 19, 1939 in Shreveport, Louisiana, growing up mostly in Lake Charles, LA. In both high school and college, she was a champion forensic debater. She received her Bachelor of Science in Secondary Education degree from Louisiana State University with teaching credentials in speech and social studies. Emily earned her Master's of Education degree in Counseling and Guidance from the University of Arizona at Tucson. She was a school counselor and taught in public education in both elementary and high schools. Emily was the daughter of the late J Wesley Norred and Enid Bowen Norred, originally from Hill County, TX. She was married to Dr. George Walther for 52 years, during which time the couple have been full partners together in marriage and in Christian family ministry. As a career USAF family, they lived at the Air Force Academy near Colorado Springs where Dr. (LtCol) Walther was a member of the faculty. In 1974, she founded and became co-President of Christian Marriage Enhancement, Inc., a ministry to married couples and families. Within four years of its establishment, the organization had become a large international ministry that had conducted weekend-long retreat-seminars for married couples all across the U.S., Canada, and as far away as Papua, New Guinea. She personally recruited and trained hundreds of volunteer couples to present the retreat-seminars. Because of her efforts, more than 70,000 married couples are alumni of seminars conducted under her leadership. She also founded and operated the Personal and Family Growth Center in Colorado Springs, a counseling center to which many couples and individuals came from across the nation. They moved to Temple in 1985 to join the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor faculty leadership. Emily was a frequent speaker at conferences, particularly in the areas of marriage and the family, and self-esteem for women. Recently, she spoke at international conferences in Sweden, France, Malaysia and Italy, as well as in many U.S. cities. Survivors include her husband, Dr. George Walther of Temple; her children, Jane Booth of Aurora, CO, Merriam Handling of Sherman, TX and Howard Walther of Houston; her brother, Wes Norred of Dallas; her sister, Mary Lou Hickock of Poway, CA and six grandchildren. Contributions will be appreciated to the American Diabetes Association, 1701 N. Beauregard St., Alexandria, VA 22311 or to Christians for Biblical Equality, 122 West Franklin Ave., Suite 218, Minneapolis, MN 55404.