Lola Binzegger

Lola F. Binzegger, beloved by family and friends, died in Tyler, Texas, on October 26, 2023, six months shy of her 100th birthday. A rosary will be held on Monday, October 30 at 1:00 p.m. followed by Mass of Christian Burial at 2:00 p.m. at Wellspring, Fransalian Spirituality Center in Whitehouse, Texas. A graveside service and interment will take place on Wednesday, November 1 at 2:00 p.m. at Llano Cemetery in Amarillo, Texas.

The second of four girls, Lola Faye was born in 1924 in Knox City, Texas to John William Fowler and Sarah Bertha Lea Fowler. Her lifetime spanned the roaring 20s, the Great Depression, World War II, and 17 American presidents. As a teenager, she listened to Franklin Roosevelt on the radio announce the bombing of Pearl Harbor. As a middle-aged mother of six children, she watched a TV news broadcast of men landing on the moon. As a grandmother and great grandmother, she took advantage of the many inventions that occurred over the course of her long and full life, from color televisions, microwave ovens and computers to Velcro, jets, cars with automatic transmissions, Kindles, and cell phones.

In 1942, she followed the advice of her uncle to take a civil service exam and landed a clerical job working at the Navy Department in Washington, DC, processing orders for sailors bound for military duty overseas during World War II. With Texas in the rearview mirror, she delighted in meeting other young women from around the nation and relished the many train trips they took for weekends in nearby New York City. The lure of the Big Apple was irresistible, and in 1943 she relocated to NYC, took up residence in the YWCA, and worked in the state’s employment agency as the war was drawing to a close. The bustle of Times Square, dancing at nightclubs in Harlem, and dinners with friends and servicemen at the Stork Club were among her favorite memories.

Back in her hometown of Amarillo, Texas, on New Year’s Eve in 1945, Lola joined the crowd at the Herring Hotel to welcome a new year and caught the eye of a handsome, mustachioed Marine. Four months later she married Jim Binzegger and they spent the next 66 years together. Native Texans, Lola and Jim lived most of their lives in the Texas Panhandle, where all of their children—five daughters and a son—were born.

Though Lola’s superb clerical skills put her in demand at a variety of offices over the years, her No. 1 job was devoted wife, mother, and family caretaker. She cooked like Betty Crocker, kept a tidy home, and hosted large holiday gatherings that drew dozens of relatives who filled every inch of the Binzegger home in Amarillo. It wasn’t Christmas without treats decorated by her grandchildren and her trademark fudge and divinity. Lola’s chocolate chip cookies were family favorites: every grandson or granddaughter raced to her kitchen to find them waiting when they arrived for a visit.

Lola was a woman of strong faith and the poster girl for being active in her church. She and her husband were lifelong members of St. Mary’s Catholic Church, gracing the pews on Sundays for 45 years, and in retirement, almost every day. Lola was quick to volunteer to do whatever needed doing at the parish. Sometimes it was organizing the annual turkey dinner fundraiser. Other times it was taking her turn in the Altar Society to clean the church or serving lunch after a funeral. Nothing was too big or too small.

Lola was a whiz at bridge and played cards in the same foursome every week for 40 years. She loved to read. If travel stickers hadn’t gone out of fashion, Lola’s suitcase would have been plastered with ones from trips to Canada, England, Switzerland, The Hague, and Italy, and stateside destinations that ranged from the Rockies in New Mexico and Colorado, the tulip fields in Washington, and the Alaska Inland Passage to the bright lights of Branson, the piers at Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco, and anywhere a relative had a spare bed.

After her husband died in 2012, Lola moved from Amarillo to Tyler to help look after her special needs granddaughter. She never lost the sense of adventure she hatched during her East Coast civilian tour of duty in the war years. At the age of 90, she was strolling the streets of Florence and Tuscany, zip lining, and bungee jumping.

Having outlived her parents, aunts and uncles, her three sisters, her in-laws, and almost all of her cousins, Lola never expected to be the last and oldest one standing among her immediate and large extended family. She gracefully bore the loss of her husband, daughter, Sara Youree, and first grandson, Christopher Youree. She observed that she’d lived so long most of her friends were in Llano, referring to the cemetery in Amarillo where she will be laid to rest next to her husband, Jim.

Lola leaves a rich and enviable legacy for her children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. Service was in Lola’s DNA. Hers was an exemplary life of generosity, kindness, and concern for others. She was the family go-to person in good times and bad, and she was always the first to step up when anyone—family or otherwise—needed help of any kind. Supper for someone sick, hours and hours of volunteering, a check-up phone call, decluttering a family member’s house overrun with worldly possessions left behind, Lola was always there.

Memories of her will be a blessing for Lola’s children and their spouses: Janet Lea and Mary Lou Mitchell (Santa Fe, NM), Jay and Bonnie Binzegger (Shelton, WA), Shari and Pat Davis (Richmond, TX), Bari and Geof Walker (Tyler, TX), and Suzan and Steve Diller (Dallas, TX). Lola doted on her 11 grandchildren: Michele Youree, Madison Walker Oatman (Trent), Abbey Diller Hernandez (Miguel), James Davis, Jonathan Davis (Miriah), Ryan Diller, Hayden Walker, Forrest Walker (Samantha), Landon Walker, Anna Davis Antoniuk (Danny), and Joshua Davis. Her great grandchildren Sloane and Walker Oatman and Ellie Davis filled her final years with joy.

Lola’s family suggests memorials to Breckenridge Village in Tyler.