Louella W. Belknap

Today, I had to say goodbye to my mother, my best friend. She was born on September 11, 1919 in Dallas to Margaret and Robert Walraven. She graduated from Adamson High School in 1936, then attended Texas Tech and, during her mother’s teaching summers at The University of Texas in Austin, she met my dad, who was teaching there and who, having met her, refused to allow her to return to Tech and married her instead. She graduated from UT and taught 5th grade at Brykerwoods Elementary. During mother’s summers, she got her Masters in Library Science and, still at Brykerwoods, set up the library where she stayed for the next 29 years until she retired. Many children benefited from knowing her. They loved to tell her jokes because she had a wonderful sense of humor. After retirement, mother stayed very busy with collecting her cats, reading, travel, RIF (Reading is Fundamental), Retired Teachers Association, and the Cereus Garden Club. In 1984 my dad left us and in 1990, my sister left us. Now, mother has gone to join them. She is survived by me, Kitty Challstrom, my husband Jim, our daughters: Christy Askew, her husband Jeff and their children, Sean, Shelby, and Parker, Ginny Druart, her husband Ned and their children James, Haley, and Delaney. Betty’s children: Greg Cumpton, his wife Cheryl and their children Autumn and Denali and Cathy Naillon and her husband Russel. We will all miss her! We really want to thank the lovely people at Barton Hills Assisted Living who never gave up taking care of mother to the very end. In lieu of flowers mother would have appreciated that donations be made to Reading Is Fundamental, P.O. Box 684794, Austin, TX 78768-4794 A memorial service will be held on Friday, July 28 at 2 pm at All Saints Episcopal Church 209 West 27th. Obituary and guestbook online at wcfish.com