Linda Sue (Rader) Wallace

She was born on June 22, 1947, in San Antonio, Texas. While she was a toddler, the family moved to Houston. Three years later her sister Peggy was born and their brother Michael was born five years afterward. They grew up in a house with a large garden, chickens, and their grandmother who lived in a small house in the backyard. From this beginning, Linda had a lifelong appreciation for a close-knit family and intentionally cultivated her own.

She graduated from Jefferson Davis High School in 1965, where she was involved in choir, National Honor Society and ROTC. She and her sister would volunteer at a neighborhood Baptist mission center, teaching Bible stories in the after-school programs. During summers, they volunteered as “candy stripers” at Memorial Baptist Hospital in downtown Houston. Upon high school graduation, Linda enrolled at Howard Payne College (now Howard Payne University). She was involved in the Baptist Student Union and served one summer in Indiana through their summer missionary program. In 1969, she graduated from Howard Payne with a Bachelor of Science degree in Elementary Education. She thoroughly enjoyed her experience there, made lifelong friends and was a faithful alumna. When her daughters also attended Howard Payne, she began returning every year for Homecoming events.

Linda had a 38-year career as an elementary teacher. Her first job was at Junction Elementary School in Junction, Texas. In that time, she married David Wallace and they later moved to Ozona, Texas, where she taught. They subsequently moved to Houston and, in the years when their daughters were born, she took time off from teaching to raise them. In 1982 she began teaching again, working one year in Houston ISD. In 1983 she started a 33-year career teaching mainly third-grade reading and writing at Northwest Academy/First Baptist Academy. She was named to Who’s Who in American Education five times. At several TABS and ASCI conventions she presented workshops about teaching writing to children, and she adjudicated many children’s writing contests. She impacted generations of students (even teaching two of her own daughters, a niece and her granddaughter) who loved being in her creative and cozy classroom. In 2015 Linda retired after a full and long career.

With a great sense of fun and adventure, she enjoyed creating and planning special moments and events for her family and friends. She was a devoted Houston Astros fan. She especially enjoyed traveling; after a few vacations to England with her grown daughters, she decided she could travel there by herself and made three trips. She was able to make one more trip with her granddaughter, Moriah, and had been compiling ideas for another that she wanted to make with her grandson, Joseph.

Linda had a strong, deep faith and was a member of Houston’s First Baptist Church for 41 years. She had an open heart and was loyal to her family and friends. She expressed her love and appreciation for them time and time again through her love language of giving, whether a gift or help if someone was in need. She involved herself in activities that would give to others. She had a talent for sewing and embroidery; she sewed clothing for herself and her daughters over the years, including each of their wedding gowns. After retiring from teaching, she joined the Piecemakers sewing group at Houston’s First Baptist Church and participated in mission-oriented projects. Through this ministry, Linda sewed more than 600 dresses to be taken overseas on various churches’ mission trips, receiving blankets for babies born in Houston’s Ben Taub Hospital and, throughout the pandemic, more than 1,000 face masks for family, friends and first responders.

Linda Wallace will be remembered by a life of faith and in generously giving of herself, her love and friendship in ways that demonstrated her faith.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Norman and Thelma Rader; and her brother, Michael Rader. She is survived by her husband, David Wallace; sister, Peggy Craft; daughter Julie Mize and her husband, Kyle; daughter Courtney Schisler and her husband, Mike; grandchildren Moriah and Joseph Schisler; daughter Jennifer Romig and her husband, James; sister-in-law Nancy Rader; sister-in-law Terry Wallace; aunt Jerry Jackson; and many cousins, nieces and nephews.

Visitation with the family will be held on Tuesday, January 11, 2022 from 6:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. at Waltrip Funeral Directors, 1415 Campbell Road, Houston, Texas. Funeral services will be at 10:00 a.m., Wednesday in the Worship Center at Houston's First Baptist Church, 7401 Katy Freeway, Houston, Texas. Burial will follow at 3:00 p.m. in Cistern City Cemetery, at the Corner of Manchester and St.Charles Streets, Cistern, Texas.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.waltripfuneraldirectors.com for the Wallace family.