Nancy graduated High School at Fryeburg Academy in Maine, and then she moved to Raleigh, North Carolina. She worked as a telephone operator and that is where she met her husband Robert Willis. A year later they were married and she became a military wife when Robert entered the Air Force. A year later at Tyndall Air Force in Florida, her son Robert III was born. When we were assigned to Torrejon Air Base in Madrid, Spain, Nancy was pregnant with our daughter Karen, who was born in Spain a few months later. While in Madrid, Nancy was a member of the Protestant Women of the Chapel (PWOC) and helped on many service projects to help enlist men in the service there. During our last year in Spain, she was elected as President of the European Chapter of the PWOC and went to Germany for their annual meeting. When we returned to the U.S., after our tour in Span was complete, we moved to Houston and joined Airline United Methodist Church where we were members for 30 years. While there she organized a Christmas project to help needy children have a merry Christmas. For several years she would get names of 20-25 kids from school counselors and get members of the church to buy 2 or 3 gifts for each kid. The local Food Pantry gave groceries and a turkey for each family. The gifts were wrapped and delivered with the food to the families just before Christmas. Her concern for military enlisted men continued. She started her favorite project while at Airline, a project called “Operation Coupons”. This was a project where she collected Manufacture Coupons from the newspaper and sent them to families at overseas bases to help them save money at the grocery store. These coupons are good for 6 months after they expire here in the U.S. For the 12 years she was in charge of this project, she sent coupons worth over 73 million dollars to over 250 families at 20 bases overseas. She was also involved in many other projects with the women’s groups at both Airline UMC and Cypress UMC.
After returning to the U.S. Nancy started working for Aldine School district as an aid in the deaf education class. Two years later she was secretary for the same school. She continued to move up in the school district and became secretary to the Purchasing Agent for the district. From there she was promoted to Warehouse Manager for the district and later also became the Purchasing Agent. She retired after 24 years of service with the School District.
Nancy is survived by her husband of 53 years, Robert L. Willis, Jr., her brother Fred Stuart and his wife Joanne, her sister Joanne Ward, and her sister Maxine Harmon, her son Robert L. Willis III and daughter Karen Porter and her husband Tony and her grandchildren Kristin, Ryan, Cameron and Hannah.
A Memorial Service will be held at Cypress United Methodist Church at 13403 Cypress N. Houston Rd. Cypress, TX 77429 on January 3rd 2019 at 2:00pm after burial at Houston National Cemetery.
Nancy was very concerned about families in the area who are still not back in their homes again after their homes were flooded from Hurricane Harvey. Those wishing to make memorial donations can send them to Cypress United Methodist Church with memo for the Harvey Relief Fund.
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