Vicki Wardlaw, 95, peacefully passed away at home in Waco, surrounded by her family, Thursday, March 7, 2024. She was a kind and loving wife, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother.
Funeral services will be held at 11:00 a.m., Monday, March 11, 2024, at Saint Louis Catholic Church, 2001 North 25th Street, in Waco, Texas, with burial following at Oakwood Cemetery. Please join the family for Visitation at 2:00 p.m., Sunday, March 10, in the chapel of Wilkirson-Hatch-Bailey Funeral Home, 6101 Bosque Boulevard, Waco, Texas. The Rosary will follow at 3:00 p.m.
Born Victoria Louise Worden in Fort Smith, Arkansas on August 15, 1928, to Maynard J. and Helen Hoffman Worden, she attended school at Saint Scholastica Monastery. While singing a solo during her school’s musical event at nearby Subiaco Academy, she met Patrick Wardlaw, a boarding student from Del Rio, Texas. Despite the best discouraging efforts of the Saint Scholastica sisters, a romance developed. After their graduations, Pat went home to Del Rio but soon hitchhiked to San Antonio to join the United States Marine Corps. Eventually, while stationed in the Panama Canal Zone, he invited Vicki to travel there and marry him. She did, without hesitation. They married there on July 6, 1948, and their daughter Rebecca was born in 1949. After Pat’s USMC days ended, they relocated to Del Rio and then to Waco, Texas, where their son Michael was born in 1951. For a short while, they lived and worked in Marshall, Texas where their son William was born in 1955, before the family of five permanently moved back to Waco in 1961.
Vicki was preceded in death by her parents, Maynard J. and Helen Hoffman Worden; her brothers, Maynard, Jr. and Dick Worden; and just recently by her beloved son, Mike Wardlaw.
She is survived by Pat, her loving and devoted husband of over 75 years; brother, Tony Worden of Fort Smith; daughter, Becky Meadows and husband Ray of Waco; son, Bill Wardlaw and wife Kathy, of Woodway; daughter-in-law, Susan Wardlaw of Woodway; six grandchildren, Trevor P. Wardlaw and wife Kemberly of McGregor, Jenny Schornack and husband Michael of Waco, Cari Wardlaw of Austin, Lori Becker and husband Jason of Austin, Cody Wardlaw and wife Allie of Dallas, Chris Wardlaw and wife Haylie of Waco; and her eighteen great-grandchildren, Patrick D. Wardlaw, Breyton T. Wardlaw, Victoria E. Wardlaw, Gracie Weber, Newt Schornack, Katie Claire Schornack, Kyle Keahey and wife Donnell, Clayton M. Keahey and wife Katie G., Jake Becker, Colby Becker, Ellie V. Becker, Jillian Becker, Peyton Wardlaw, Millicent Wardlaw, Francis Wardlaw, Everett Wardlaw, Elwyn Wardlaw and Witt Wardlaw.
The family wishes to express our deep, heartfelt thanks for the years of loving care provided to our mother, grandmother, great-grandmother by Corina Grogan and by three wonderful Visiting Angels: Carolyn, Louella, and Jonah.
Pallbearers will be Trevor P. Wardlaw, Cody Wardlaw, Chris Wardlaw, Michael Schornack, and Jason Becker.
Memorials may be made to Saint Scholastica Monastery, Post Office Box 3489, Fort Smith, Arkansas 72913-3489.
The family invites you to leave a message or memory on Vicki’s “Tribute Wall” at www.WHBfamily.com.
To order memorial trees or send flowers to the family in memory of Victoria Wardlaw, please visit our flower store.