Adrienne Weynand

She was born on October 29, 1927, in San Antonio, the daughter of Adrian Ivy Brown and Ursula Marie Garteiser Brown.

Adrienne fondly recalled her childhood education at Travis Elementary and Hawthorne Junior High and graduation from Jefferson High School in 1945. She is cited in the Monticello yearbook as its co-managing editor, with activities including the Girls Cadet Corps and Student Council.

When Adrienne was age 16 and a junior at Jefferson, she met Jerome Weynand – age 17 and a senior at rival Brackenridge High School – at a clerical training class for Christmas extra help at the Joske’s of Texas department store on Alamo Plaza, in 1943. A friendship was formed.

Adrienne deferred attending college and became a clerk-typist in the civilian personnel office at Fort Sam Houston. She often spoke highly of this experience.

Five years after selling toys at Joske’s, what are the odds of the couple meeting again? At high noon on a Saturday in late August, 1948, they literally “bumped into” each other on Alamo Plaza, across the street from Joske’s.

As the romantic saga continues, Jerome told his brother Bob “I’ve just met the gal I am going to marry.” A year of going steady and a year with the ring in formal engagement led to the couple’s marriage on August 11, 1950, at First Presbyterian Church, with Dr. George Mauze as pastor. Son John was born in 1953 and became another Jefferson graduate, with Adrienne’s continued help through San Antonio College and as a Texas Aggie at the UT-Austin law school.

Adrienne continued work at commercial companies, helping support the income of a newspaperman husband. Years later, she worked part-time at San Antonio College and attended classes there to earn an Associate of Arts degree while also nurturing a 7- or 8-year-old son while Jerome was in graduate studies at UT-Austin.

Adrienne liked her stint as a substitute teacher – except, she said, for those 6:30am calls to come to work immediately at an elementary school. For many years, she enjoyed teaching Sunday School and organizing fellowship activities at Grace Presbyterian Church.

Supporting Jerome’s career at what’s now the Alamo Colleges District, she was active in the Faculty Wives Club, including multiple terms as president. In 1973, when time came for Adrienne to become “First Lady,” she was ready. Little, perhaps, did she ever think she would become hostess in the Koehler House, the circa 1900s Victorian mansion on campus – the “castle” she often walked by in childhood while living on the same Ashby Place street.

Adrienne was active in genealogy pursuits, maybe boosted by being a table partner with friendly Roots author Alex Haley at a patio dinner party in the home of President Ron and Genie Calgaard at Trinity University.

Not one to brag or drop names, she greeted US First Lady Rosalynn Carter on a visit to St. Philip’s College, and she valued a newspaper photo of Prince Charles taken outside the Villita Assembly Hall, where he was honored at a luncheon hosted by Mayor Lila Cockrell. There is Adrienne right by the Prince as caught by the camera. At another time, she was one of many waving at the Prince’s mother, as Queen Elizabeth rode by on a San Antonio River barge.

She liked to travel and broadened her Las Vegas visits to include major cities and sites in the US. Four trips to continental Europe and Great Britain expanded her adventures. It was awe-inspiring, she said, to sit in the worn pews of a church in an Alsatian village where her maternal kinfolk once worshiped.

Adrienne was a longtime member and 1990-91 president of the Castro Colonies Heritage Association, in Castroville. She was also proud of her railroad man dad’s Scotch-Irish heritage, claiming one ancestor as a soldier at Edinburgh Castle, another as a doctor in the Civil War, and another running an El Paso boardinghouse visited by Pancho Villa.

She is preceded in death by her parents; sister, Glendora (Matthew) Stanush; and brother, John Calhoun Brown. Mrs. Weynand is survived by her husband, Jerome; son John and daughter-in-law, Sharon; niece, Janet Stanush Crain and her nephew, Matthew Syamken, and his family; Texas cousins; and the Weynand clan in the Carolinas.

There will be an indoor funeral service on Saturday, September 17 at 1:00pm, at the Sunset Memorial Park, 1701 Austin Highway 78218 in San Antonio, with Pastor Larry Sears officiating.

Memorials may be made to Grace Presbyterian Church, 950 Donaldson Avenue, San Antonio, TX 78228 (210-735-9419), or to the charity of your choice.

Family tribute is made to the staff at Morningside Manor and UT Health Geriatrics as caregivers since January 2022, and to Blue Skies Hospice for services in recent days.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.sunsetfuneralhomesa.com for the Weynand family.