Janis Jane Riggs

Janis Jane Riggs of Waco passed away Wednesday, May 31, 2017. Services will be 10:00 a.m., Saturday, June 3, at First United Methodist Church with Rev. Wayne Williams officiating. Burial will follow at Oakwood Cemetery. Visitation will be 5:00-7:00 p.m., Friday, June 2, at Wilkirson-Hatch-Bailey Funeral Home’s Garden Room. Janis was born December 22, 1929, in Waco, the only child of Emmitt Lee and Bessie Jewel Chatham Harris. She graduated from Waco High School, and received her bachelor and master degrees in education from Baylor University. On March 28, 1953, she married Thomas Edward Riggs, Jr., of Waco at Austin Avenue Methodist Church, and they reared their two sons, Thomas E. Riggs III and Randy Harris Riggs, in Austin, then Waco. Janis taught elementary school at Fort Benning in Georgia and at East Junior High, Lake Air Junior High, University High, and Richfield High schools in Waco. She was an accomplished pianist, accompanist, and soprano, actively involved in her local Methodist church, wherever they lived. She was also an accomplished cook and bridge player, and was actively involved in local PTA organizations. Janis was an avid Baylor sports fan, enjoying football, men’s basketball and the Lady Bears basketball. Janis had been active in the Darden Literary Society in Waco High School, the Waco Club at Baylor and was their Homecoming Queen nominee, Athenian Club, which became Kappa Kappa Gamma, at Baylor and was a Homecoming Queen nominee of the Esquire Club at Baylor. She also served on the board of the National USO. Janis was preceded in death by her parents. She is survived by her husband of 64 years; her sons, Tommy Riggs and wife, Toni, and Randy Riggs and wife, Mary Ann. She has six grandchildren, Thomas Riggs IV of Waco, Leah Riggs Stone and husband, Austin, of Glen Rose, Katherine Riggs of Austin, Christopher Riggs of Waco, Alyssa Riggs of Waco and Isabella Riggs of Waco; and three great grandsons, Truett and Abbott Stone of Glen Rose, and Blaze Riggs of Waco. The family invites you to leave a message or memory on our “Tribute Wall” at www.WHBfamily.com.