Irma Adele Wynne Monning
Irma Adele Wynne Monning
1926-2017
Memorial services for Irma Adele Wynne Monning, 90, were held Saturday, April 8, 2017, at Russell Memorial Methodist Church in Wills Point under the direction of Hiett’s LyBrand Funeral Home. Mrs. Monning passed away peacefully April 4 at her home.
“Unnie” was a cherished servant of the Lord and will be greatly missed by all who knew and loved her.
She was born June 8, 1926, in Wills Point to Littie Adele Bruce Wynne and Buck Jim Wynne. After graduation from Wills Point High School, she attended Hollins College and her beloved University of Texas, where she became a member of Pi Beta Phi Fraternity. During the war years, she served as a Red Cross nurse in Dallas and Austin. Upon returning to the university, she was introduced by her brother, Buck Wynne Jr. to the love of her life, Ben Monning Jr.
The Monnings were married at Russell Memorial Methodist Church on June 14, 1947. They settled in Amarillo where they raised three sons, Bruce, Prater and Wynne. In Amarillo, she was a member of the Vestry of St. Andrews Episcopal Church, a founding member and president of the Coronado Elementary School PTA, a founding member of Young Life of Amarillo and the Junior League of Amarillo. She was instrumental in the creation of the popular outdoor musical “Texas,” which has played in Palo Duro Canyon State Park each summer since 1965.
They returned to Wills Point in 1970 and continued their life together until his death in 2002.
She served her community in countless ways. She founded and served on the boards of the Wills Point Historical Society, Keep Wills Point Beautiful and the Wills Point Bluebird Festival. She was the first woman elected president of the Board of Trustees of the Wills Point Independent School District, and was president of Bruce & Human Drug Company, founded by her great-grandfather in 1877, and had been under common ownership by a single family longer than any pharmacy in the state of Texas. If there was a board at Russell Memorial Church, she served on it. In progress at the time of her death was her Little Free Library project that will soon be accessible to Wills Point children. Her boundless enthusiasm and concern for others was infectious. She was a devoted daughter and caregiver to her parents, an adoring mother and grandmother and a loving wife who supported her husband’s long career as a lawyer and counselor.
In 2001, the Wills Point Chamber of Commerce named the Monnings as Outstanding Citizens of the Year in recognition of their service to the City. March 28, 2017, the Chamber again named her Outstanding Citizen in appreciation for her lifetime contributions to her home town.
She was preceded in death by her parents; brother; husband; and son, Wynne.
Survivors inlcude her sons and daughters-in-law, Bruce and Anne Monning, Prater and Nancy Monning, and Becky Monning; grandchildren, Wright Bruce Monning, Jr., Sarah Adele Monning Schoellkopf, Shelby Monning Patterson, Benjamin Prater Monning IV, Arthur Christopher Monning, Buck Wynne Monning, Jr., William Benjamin Monning, and John Owens Monning; great-grandchildren, Wynne and Wright Monning, Hugo and Ruth Anne Schoellkopf, and Alice Patterson; niece, Nancy Wynne Saustad; nephew, Howell Wynne; and hundreds of her beloved Wynne family cousins.
Her family gives special thanks to her long-time friends Shirley and Danny Barker and Lessie Mae Morehead.
In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Keep Wills Point Beautiful, PO Box 513, Wills Point, Texas 75169, the Felix Massey Teaching Excellence Fund, PO Box 44, Wills Point, Texas 75169, or to a charity of choice.
