Lynn Williams Klatt

Lynn Williams Klatt, our beloved Mom, grandmother, great-grandmother, and known to most of us for the last 30+ years as “Ganny,” passed peacefully on to her well-deserved heavenly reward on Sunday morning, March 19, 2023. She was 90 years old. After a private burial at Oakwood Cemetery, a celebration of Ganny’s life will be held at First United Methodist Church in Waco at 11:00 a.m. on Wednesday, March 29.

Ganny was born in Waco September 13, 1932. Her amazing life spanned the terms of 16 American presidents and over one third of American history. For her family, it felt like Ganny would always be here; she would always be the matriarch of the family; she would always be around.

She was the daughter of Charles Berry (CB) Williams and Zelma Williams. Her dad was the mayor of Waco in 1943 and helped to integrate lunch counters in downtown Waco in the 1950s. In fact, the Williams family name was a household word in Waco during the mid-twentieth century, due to the Williams Drug Store chain that her father founded and grew.

She attended Sanger Avenue Elementary School, North Junior High, and Waco High School, from which she graduated in 1949. One of her most cherished youthful memories was as a cheerleader for the Waco High Tigers when they won the 1948 state football championship on a snow-covered field in Fort Worth on Christmas Day. She then spent her freshman year at Christian College in Columbia, Missouri before returning to Waco to finish her next three years of college at one of the great loves of her life, Baylor University, where she forged many lifelong friendships.

At Baylor, Ganny’s star was radiant. She was president of the Athenean Club and of the Interclub Council; Homecoming Princess and May Queen Nominee of the Sophomore Class in 1951; ROTC Cadet Sponsor in 1951 and 1952; a Baylor Beauty each year between 1950 and 1953; her Junior Class Treasurer; and Who’s Who in American Universities and Colleges in 1952 and 1953.

When we think of Ganny, two words come foremost to mind -- “home” and “volunteer.” If home is where the heart is, then Ganny was our home. She married the love of her life, our father James M. “Henry” Klatt, at Austin Avenue Methodist Church, December 27, 1952. They then embarked on one of the adventures of their young lives, our father’s four year tour of duty as an Air Force pilot, spending some of their earliest joyful married years in Germany and France. After returning to Texas, they embraced home and community life to the fullest.

She truly demonstrated that “Volunteers do not necessarily have the time; they just have the heart.” Few have exemplified this spirit better than Ganny. A partial list of her astonishing record of public service in Waco includes: President of the Junior League of Waco, President of the Waco Garden Forum Club, President of the Athenean Club Alumnae, Fund Director for the United Way and the Waco YWCA, President of the Hillcrest Elementary School PTA, Den Mother of the Hillcrest Elementary School Cub Scouts, and Board President of the Laura Edwards Christian Community Center. As if this was not enough, she then embarked on a decades-spanning career as a public school teacher in the Waco Independent Public School system, teaching Language Arts and English as a Second Language for well over twenty years.

After retirement from teaching, she continued to immerse herself in two more of her life passions in the Waco community– the Historic Waco Foundation, serving on the board of East Terrace, and First United Methodist Church, where she taught an exercise class for seniors as recently as last fall. She was also an avid bridge player with friends in several bridge groups.

She also loved travel. She and our dad took us on road trips to the Texas coast, to the Alamo and the San Jacinto Monument, to visit relatives in West Texas, to Carlsbad Caverns and White Sands in New Mexico, on excursions to Civil War battlefields throughout the south on the way to visit her dear younger sister and her family in South Carolina, and to Hawaii. In her later years, she joyfully welcomed and adored her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She truly gave all of us love, family, and home.

Ganny traversed adversity in her life with remarkable grace and courage. These included the untimely deaths of a younger sister when Ganny was only seven years old and the loss of a younger brother in the 1970s, surviving breast cancer in the 1980s, and most tragically losing our father 25 years ago in an accident on the eve of their retirement. Reflecting her lifelong “glass is always half-full” attitude of optimism, she created a new life for herself centered around her loyal friends in Waco, traveling abroad with them, and maintaining undying devotion to her beloved Baylor University and its men’s and women’s athletic teams. In fact, less than three weeks before her death, she attended -- in person no less -- a double header of the Baylor women’s and men’s basketball games at the Ferrell Center. She truly has “flung her green and gold afar, to light the ways of time.”

Ganny was a devout Christian. She believed, as her peer Queen Elizabeth once said, that “We know, every one of us, that in the end all will be well; for God will care for us and give us victory and peace.”

This remarkable American and Texas woman and steadfast Baylor Bear is survived by her son, Mike and his wife, Sha, of Austin; daughter, Suzy and her husband, Henry Arnold, of Dallas; grandchildren, Sydney Klatt Wallace and her husband, Scott, Sam Klatt and his wife, Bonner, Ben Klatt and his wife, Sarah, Allison Arnold O’Rear and her husband, Brooks, and Andrew Arnold; great-grandchildren, Sha Elizabeth Wallace, Blake Olivia Wallace, and Charles Maxwell O’Rear; sister, Charlene Williams Young and her husband, Dr. William F. Young of North Carolina; and eight nieces and nephews.

Pallbearers are Sam Klatt, Ben Klatt, Andrew Arnold, Scott Wallace, Brooks O'Rear, and Thomas Arnold. Honorary pallbearers are Dick Taylor, Ralph Klatt, Ronnie Klatt, Kirk Geno and Rick Young.

Memorials may be sent to the James M. “Henry” and Lynn Williams Klatt Endowed Scholarship Fund at Baylor University, the First United Methodist Church of Waco, or the Historic Waco Foundation. The family invites you to leave a message or memory on our “Tribute Wall” at www.WHBfamily.com.