Wanda Jean (Shaw) Fisher

Wanda Jean Shaw Fisher, 90, died on November 4, 2023, at her home in Austin. Wanda was born March 14, 1933, in Uvalde, Texas, to Opal Grace Blevins Shaw and Floyd Stanley Shaw. After graduating from Uvalde High School in 1950, she attended Uvalde Junior college for a year and then married her high school sweetheart, Walter Conrad “Connie” Fisher III. The couple moved to San Diego where Connie was stationed during the Korean War. While he was overseas on a Navy destroyer, she worked as a telephone operator for AT&T. When Connie was discharged, they moved to San Antonio, Texas where she was a homemaker, raising their two children, Walt (aka “Cuatro”) and Gracie. In 1965, the family moved to Del Rio. After a few years of homemaking, she started teaching pre-K at St. James Episcopal School in the mornings and working as a florist in the afternoons and on Saturdays.

After Wanda and Connie divorced in 1976, she stayed in Del Rio, continuing to teach and work until 1982 when, at age 49, she decided to spread her own wings and move to Austin where she enrolled in the School of Social Work at the University of Texas. She was terrified that she was too old and that she would embarrass herself in front of all those “smart” young people, but of course she turned out to be a curve buster and graduated in 1985 with High Honors.

Wanda worked in UT’s Counseling & Psychological Services Office for fifteen years, where she made many close and lasting friendships. While there, she used the same behavioral modification techniques on the therapists and staffers that she had used on her 4-year-old pupils to great effect. After retiring from UT in 1998, she went to work for medical billing company AMPM (now Puredi) where she supported some of the same psychologists she had worked with at UT. There she continued her role of “Authoritarian Grandma” – equal parts loving and demanding – never forgetting a birthday but also not putting up with any nonsense. She retired from AMPM twice. The last time for real at age 84.

Wanda was always busy, enjoying many hobbies and interests including gardening, sewing, finding and refinishing interesting antique furniture, baking her famous Fisher bread and oatmeal cookies, exploring small Texas towns on FFOs (“fun family outings”), shell hunting on Padre Island, traveling (she spent her 75th birthday in Shanghai), hand-feeding the longhorns on the family ranch, helping raise her granddaughter, keeping up with her family and many friends, and spoiling all the neighborhood dogs. She loved Jimmy Buffett’s music and her favorite songs were “Life is Just a Tire Swing” and “A Pirate Looks at Forty.”

Probably her greatest joy was in teaching and playing with young children, who were naturally drawn to her. She shared their natural curiosity and sense of wonder and encouraged them to read and explore and figure things out for themselves. She was a major positive influence in the lives of many surrogate grandchildren, as well as in that of her own beloved granddaughter, Maddie, with whom she was especially close (and proud of).

In her later years, Wanda developed significant health issues, including Parkinson’s and heart disease, that slowed her down physically but never mentally. She continued to deploy her generous nature, great sense of humor and quick wit until the very end.

Wanda was preceded in death by her parents, Floyd and Opal; her siblings, Ray Shaw, Eleanor Walker, and Barbara Everett; nephew Robbie Shaw; and her former husband, Connie Fisher. She is survived by her son Walter Conrad Fisher IV and daughter-in-law Judy Bruce Fisher of San Antonio; daughter Grace Ellen Fisher Renbarger and son-in-law Bob Renbarger of Austin; granddaughter Madeline Rae Renbarger of Brooklyn, New York; brother-in-law James Everett of Uvalde; nieces Lacy Shaw of Austin and Jean Ann Everett Chisum of Uvalde; and nephews Stanley Walker of Locust, North Carolina, Greg Walker of Magnolia, and Jim Everett of Woodinville, Washington; her devoted dog Ellie Mae; and scores of dear friends and neighbors.

Wanda’s family would like to thank her physicians, Leonor Frierson-Stroud, MD, Suzanne Wetherold, MD, David Tschopp, MD, and Georgeta Varga, MD, for helping Wanda feel as good as she could for as long as she could, as well as Hospice Austin, Annette from Homewell Care Services, and Mary Gonzalez for taking such good care of Wanda in her final days.

A celebration of Wanda’s life will be held at Weed, Corley & Fish, 5416 Parkcrest Drive in Austin, on Sunday, November 19, 2023, at 2:00 p.m. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Hospice Austin, Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas, Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, Austin Pets Alive, or the charity of your choice.