Carolyn King Waller

Carolyn King Waller, born on August 7, 1934, in Corpus Christi, Texas, to J.T. King and Ruth Roddy, passed away on October 24, 2024, in Round Rock, Texas. She was a beloved wife, mother, sister, grandmother, great-grandmother, and friend. Carolyn was a fierce advocate for justice, a true “political animal,” and yet was the most gentle of beings. She found beauty in the female form. She was particularly fond of the works of Impressionist painters Renoir, Degas, and Gauguin. When her oldest daughter was very young, she showed her a green glass vase that was slightly misshapen with bubbles trapped in the glass, teaching her to see with new eyes. She said that art made by human hands was lovely, not in spite of its imperfections, but because of them. She loved to laugh, would crinkle her nose and call children funny names, and was downright hilarious when acting out a charade.

Carolyn was raised in Corpus Christi by her father and loving bonus mom, Jodie Everett King. After graduating from W.B. Ray High School, she moved to Austin to study art at the University of Texas. She resided at Scottish Rite Dorm, and pledged Alpha Chi Omega. It was in Austin that John Andrew Waller, Jr., a UT law student, spotted her. She was walking down Guadalupe Street—"the Drag"—wearing a lime-green coat. He told his friend, "I'm going to meet that girl," and set out to do just that. Carolyn was at a dance with another young man when John appeared and asked her to dance. She said, "Yes." They fell madly and eternally in love. She called him, "Johnny Honey." They were married May 30, 1954. By 1960, they had four daughters together, "the Four L's": Lisa, Loise, Laura, and Leigh Ann.

Throughout her life, Carolyn taught her family the importance of love and unity. She crafted a childhood of joy for her girls, arranging after-school piano, dance, horseback riding, choir, gymnastics, theatre, and twirling lessons. Every summer, her daughters were given swimming lessons. The family loved animals, and had numerous cats and dogs. Carolyn raised the girls in the wonderful Episcopal Church and took them there for Sunday worship. She made those days special, making cinnamon rolls for breakfast and hanging out with other families afterwards. She taught that God was Love, and railed against false doctrines that emphasized sin and guilt.

All her children's friends were welcome in the family home. These friends loved being in the Waller household and more than one girl later revealed that she wished Carolyn had been her mother. Picking up her children when school let out in the afternoons, any non-family child needing a ride hopped in the back of Carolyn’s car. Not infrequently, Carolyn arrived home to discover that none of her own children had ridden in the car home with her that day. A gifted artist, she cut out paper dolls with her daughters. She had a sweet tooth for fruit pies and was an accomplished baker, teaching her girls how to make all kinds of delicacies, from a simple cherry or key lime pie to the intricate three-step black bottom pie. Her kids, when young, were allowed to play day in, day out, in the lazy summertime, wearing bathing suits, going barefoot, on the slip-and-slide, or swimming in one of the local pools. She created an idyllic childhood for her girls. She put Beatles records on the stereo and danced with the girls and the neighborhood kids. Whomever was in the house at lunchtime was served a glass of lemonade and a tuna fish sandwich oozing with mayonnaise. In all those early years, she managed all aspects of her roles and made it look effortless. She kept her own house. When it rained, the flat-roofed ceiling of the Rio Vista house dripped in many rooms. She had to run around, setting out pots and pans to catch the drips. She had a knack of styling a home with tasteful fabrics and art, and could be quite Bohemian.

Carolyn was exceptionally appreciative, always putting others before herself, and spreading joy wherever she went. She did not talk about herself or her needs. She wanted you to talk to her about yourself. She was always glad to see you. If you called or came to see her when she was eating, she pushed her plate aside and gave you all her attention. Nothing was more important than making others feel valued. She built you up and never scolded anyone, not once. She modeled kindness and was empathetic to people from all walks of life. Every week on garbage collection day, she watched out the front window of her Carshalton home for the arrival of the city workers. Once they were in front of her house, she would run down the sidewalk to give them tumblers of cold water to drink. She gave the mailman a Christmas gift. She showered family members with birthday, Valentine’s, Easter, and Christmas cards, candies, and gifts. She reveled in family parties. On Halloween, she didn’t need to go all out and buy an elaborate costume. Wearing her kitty-cat ears, she was adorable.

You will never encounter anyone with as prodigious memory as Carolyn. She was a savant. If you told her your birthday, she would be able to name other global and family events that had happened on that day of the month. She was that rare individual who remembered the tiniest details from events and the lives of people in American history and classic movies. Her favorite movies were made in the 1940s. She relished a brisk anti-Nazi movie, such as the "Night Train to Munich." Her movies had to have a good ending, with good triumphing over evil. Of leading men, she was fond of Joel McCrea. She also thought James Garner was “pretty” and loved to watch the “Rockford Files.” She devoured scholarly biographies of Winston Churchill, LBJ, the Roosevelts, yet also enjoyed lighter fare of biographies of the Golden Age of Film stars Veronica Lake and Cary Grant.

As a young mother and wife of a prominent Corpus Christi attorney, she threw herself into leadership roles in both civic and social groups. She belonged to three bridge clubs. Her daughters remember the card tables being set up in the living room for the upcoming bridge days. Her friend, Ada Lee Williams, said that you wanted Carolyn on your bridge team, she was that sharp, "the best player among us." She belonged to four ecumenical prayer groups, one for each daughter. She was active in the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd, the Nueces County Law Wives Club, Church Women United, the League of Women Voters, and the Democratic Party. She belonged to a group of married couples that shared dinners in each other’s homes. Their dinners were themed—Hawaiian, Chinese, etc.—and the wives sometimes entertained the men with ukelele concerts.

When her children were little, Carolyn worked as an administrative assistant at Del Mar College Office of Admissions. In her forties, she finished her college studies at A & I University in Corpus Christi, receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in English with a minor in history. Her husband, John, told daughter, Lisa, who was studying at UT Austin at the same time as her mother was studying, that her mother was making better grades than Lisa was. After graduating, Carolyn and John moved to Austin, where she taught English at Travis High School. Always kind, she had a policy of not sending any student to detention, but one day found that she had to send one person. As that young man never arrived at detention, she vowed not to send anyone else to detention in the future. She enjoyed teaching the poetry class, but, because it was an elective, not many people signed up for it. Her friend, also on the faculty as the speech teacher and debate coach, Claire Dodillet, kindly dispatched some of her own students to attend Carolyn’s poetry class.

Later, when retired, Carolyn became an avid grassroots neighborhood activist, roaming her neighborhood with her toolbox of paint brushes and paint in utility colors, painting out graffiti where she found it. She notified businesses of their responsibility to cover up tagging on their premises. Up into her eighties, Carolyn was still taking care of family babies in her home. She had a unique relationship with grandson, Robert Mezzetti. For years, these soulmates met on weekday afternoons, with Robert telling the stories while Carolyn wrote them down in blank journals provided by Claire. Carolyn added illustrations and Robert colored them. They wrote over two dozen books in this manner. The two of them also passed the afternoons playing countless games of Scrabble and cards, while discussing current and past events. Carolyn said she was “born to shop.” Her favorite shopping haunt was the Hallmark Store where she was seen so often and thus nicknamed "the Fiddler." She did not shop for herself. She bought cards and trinkets for everyone else.

Carolyn is survived by her daughters Lisa Waller Rogers (Tom), Loise King Waller (Randy Linder), Laura Waller-Delarosa (Mike), and Leigh Ann Mezzetti (Bob), as well as sister, Kathryn King Coleman (Hank), brothers, Dr. Dean Niemeyer (Marlowe) and Steve Nicholson (Anita), son-in-law, Michael Faist (Ronnie), and numerous other relatives including grandchildren, great-grandchildren, nieces, and nephews. She was very popular. She made many friends at every age of her life and kept them forever. She was preceded in death by her parents, husband, sister, Hallie Lou Goodwin, brother, Rev. John T. King, nephew, Karl Niemeyer, and granddaughter, Katharine Anne Waller Rogers.

The family sends special thanks to the loving staffs of Volante of Round Rock and Magnolia Hospice.

A visitation is to be held on Monday, October 28th from 5:30-7:30 p.m. at Weed Corley Fish at the 5416 Parkcrest, Austin, location. On Tuesday, October 29th, at 2 p.m., graveside services will be held at Austin Memorial Park, 2800 Hancock Drive, Austin, Texas. Please wear bright colors! Contributions in Carolyn’s memory may be made to Magnolia Hospice by mail at 1421 Wells Branch Pkwy, Ste. 105, Pflugerville, TX 78660 or on their website at https://theremarkablelife.org/.

Carolyn will be deeply missed by all who knew her, but her legacy of love, kindness, and advocacy will live on in the hearts of those she touched.

“For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.” (1 Corinthians 13:12)