Ada Marie McElhenney

Ada Marie Oakley McElhenney, 88, was received into her new life on March 8, 2021. Ada was a Texan born in New Orleans, Louisiana on October 7, 1932. Her mother died before Ada's second Christmas and she was taken to the loving care of her grandparents, Ada and Marion Walter Oakley in Nederland Texas. Those were happy years. In 1937 she was moved to Austin to live with her father, Ralph Oakley, and his new wife.

From Kindergarten through eighth grade Ada attended St. Mary's Academy where she was nurtured and taught by the Sisters of the Holy Cross. This is where Ada discovered her life purpose: learning to paint.

In 1951, Ada graduated from Ward-Belmont College, a two-year women's college in Nashville. After raising her family she returned to get her degree at the University of Texas where she graduated with a BFA focused on Art History in 1972. During the following decades, her love of learning found her in demanding study programs at Harvard and Cornell. She attended Cambridge College in England to study English Country Houses and Gardens which was less rigorous but full of English history. The unexpected reward of these studies was the meeting and making of long-lasting like-minded friends.

Ada loved New York City and for three years had an apartment there where she painted and studied at the Art Student's League. She spent the days in the museums absorbing lessons from the master paintings.

After she returned to Austin in 1980 she dedicated her life to her painting and making a wild landscape with the plants naturally growing in Texas on her land located on the Edwards Plateau. Interest in Ada's native garden grew, including a television interview on KLRU, and the attention of former First Lady Mrs. Johnson. During Mrs. Johnson’s multiple visits to Ada’s garden, they admired and talked about the wildflowers.

In 1978, while serving on the board of Laguna Gloria Art Museum Ada was given recognition for envisioning a downtown space for the museum and securing it in the lobby area at First Federal Savings and Loan.

Ada was an Elder in the Presbyterian Church. As a child, she attended First Presbyterian Church downtown on Seventh Street. Later she was a faithful member of Westminster Presbyterian Church on Exposition. Ada regarded her Faith as the great blessing of her life. It held her through joy and sorrow, filling her with gratitude.

She was probably known best for her devotion to her children and her four grandchildren. It was boundless. They were the delight and light of her final decades. Ada said she was made to be a grandmother, a Presbyterian grandmother, who painted, grew wildflowers, and baked cookies.

Ada was preceded in death by her mother, Nelva O'Neal Oakley, and father, Ralph Sidney Oakley, and her beloved daughter, Sidney McElhenney and son T.R. McElhenney Jr. Still living are her two children Amy McElhenney Barbee and John Oakley McElhenney of Austin. and grandchildren: Ada Louise Barbee, Thomas Read Barbee, Jason Philip McElhenney, and Claire Oakley McElhenney. Also alive are two dear cousins: Carolyn Bolton and Phillip Oakley.

A celebration of Ada’s life will take place on April 5, at 3 pm at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. In lieu of flowers, the family request donations be made to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center or a charity of your choice.