Vivian Stevenson Langlois died peacefully at her home in New Braunfels, Texas on March 17, 2014. Vivian, born on Christmas Day, 1926 in Forth Worth, Texas, brought happiness, joy, patience, understanding, and love to this world for 87 years.
The daughter of Henry Stevenson and Glenda Linberg, Vivian was always very proud of her Norwegian ancestry. Her mother grew up in Bosque County, Texas and was a descendant of the original Norse settlers in that area. Her father, from Kendall County, Illinois, was also a Norwegian descendant. Vivian graduated in 1944 from Polytechnic High School in Fort Worth, Texas.
She married Graydon Payne in 1948 and they moved to San Angelo, Texas where he worked as a pharmacist and she worked in the civil service for 17 years at Goodfellow AFB while raising their two daughters, Vanessa Lee Payne and Taina Ann Payne. While in San Angelo the family was very active in the Trinity Lutheran Church where the girls attended Lutheran elementary school. Following Graydon's death in 1971, she later married Howard Langlois and moved to Brainard, Minnesota, but longing to return home to her beloved Texas, they moved to New Braunfels, Texas in 1988.
Besides being a devoted mother to her children, grandchildren, and great grandchild, she was a creative seamstress, lovingly sewing her children's clothes, their seasonal costumes, and creating artistically beautiful needlepoint designs. She inherited her mother's grand cooking, she was a champion bowler, a winning bridge player, and an avid fan of Texas football and baseball. Her love for the outdoors spanned time and distance, from fishing on the lakes of Minnesota to bird watching and squirrel chasing in her backyard here in New Braunfels.
She was preceded in death by her parents, Henry and Glenda, her sister Irene Preston, and her younger brother Rod Stevenson.
Vivian is survived by her daughters, Vanessa Brown of Dallas, Georgia and Taina Payne-Nakel of Acworth, Georgia; grandchildren, Max Nakel of Acworth, Georgia, Ryan Brown of Dallas, Georgia, and Seaton Brown, his wife Emily Brown, and Viv's first great grandchild, Ronan Avery Brown of Kyle, Texas; her favorite cousins, Karen Dowdy and Janice Bertelsen of Waco, Texas; extended family members including Philip Brown, who devotedly cared for Vivian in New Braunfels, Texas, Martin Nakel of Acworth, Georgia, Jim Langlois of Colorado; numerous nieces, nephews, and many others including George Page, her long time companion. She was very proud of her family and all of their accomplishments.
A memorial service will be held on Saturday, March 22, 2014, 10:30 am, at Zoeller Funeral Home in New Braunfels, Texas. Later to be laid to rest with her loving husband, Howard Langlois interred at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery. We would like to thank Hope Hospice for allowing Vivian to live the last months of her life with grace and dignity. Flowers are appreciated but donations may be made in her honor to Hope Hospice and one of her favorite charities, the ASPCA. Dogs always held a special place in mother's heart.
Vivian's flashing auburn hair, sparkling green eyes, her always friendly smile, infectious giggle, her warm heart and her enduring patience will be missed greatly by all those she met but mostly by her family whom she cared about so much - family was everything!
Arrangements under the direction of Zoeller Funeral Home, New Braunfels, TX.
SHARE OBITUARY
v.1.8.18