Wynona Lipsett

Wynona Ruth Wieting Lipsett, age 75, of Mexia, passed away January 2, 2015 following a brief illness with esophageal cancer. Services will be held on January 6, 2015 at 1:00 pm with pre-service music 30 minutes prior to service time at First United Methodist Church of Mexia officiated by Rev. Danny Niedecken. Burial will follow at Tehuacana Cemetery on FM 171 in Tehuacana, TX. Visitation will be 5-7pm, Monday, January 5, 2015 at Blair-Stubbs Funeral Home. Wynona was born at Hillcrest Hospital in Waco, TX, on Tuesday, March 28, 1939, to parents Andrew J. Wieting, a long-time Waco Band Director, and Eldred V. Shaw Wieting, a Waco music educator, choral director, and piano accompanist. She attended North Waco Elementary, North Jr. High and graduated from Waco High School in 1957 with honors including making All State Band for 2 years playing clarinet. She attended SMU on a clarinet scholarship where she pledged with Sigma Kappa Sorority, joined Mu Phi Epsilon music fraternity, was honored by being called out to Mortar Board and received her BMEd degree. She then began her music education teaching career in the Dallas area. Twenty years later she took a sabbatical returning to SMU on a Meadows Fellowship and received her MMEd in one year. On June 30, 1962, Wynona married her husband of 52 years Donald Lipsett of Dallas and moved to Mesquite where they established their careers. With daughter Michelle and son Chuck making the family complete, the Lipsett's resided there until late 1994 when Wynona and Don both retired and moved to the Lake Mexia home they have since occupied. In Mesquite the family joined St. Mark United Methodist Church where both children and parents participated in many church activities. Wynona became church organist and was an inetragal part of the St. Mark music ministry starting and directing the Children's Choir's. She was the first choral director of the then-new West Mesquite High School whose choirs won many prestigious awards throughout Texas. She retired after almost 24 years as choral director and is renowned as the composer/lyricist of the West Mesquite High School Song. Growing up in Waco, Wynona was baptized and confirmed at Austin Avenue Methodist Church where she was an active member until going off to SMU and joined the First United Methodist Church of Dallas where she sang her first public professional vocal solo as an alto in Handel's Messiah with chorus and orchestra. Wynona joined the Dallas Symphony Chorus and sang many solos in Dallas performances as well as at the St. Stephens Cathedral in Vienna, Austria, when the Chorus toured in Europe. Wynona also sang in and served as accompanist for many musical theater presentations both in Dallas and in Mexia. Her favorite soloist role was singing "You'll Never Walk Alone" as Aunt Nellie Fowler in a "Carousel" production in Dallas, She was also an active member of Delta Kappa Gamma, a professional women's education society, serving as Area Coordinator over 15 chapters and as State Pianist. She has been very active in retirement in Mexia serving in many leadership roles including the Woman's Friday Club, the Limestone County Retired Teachers Association, the Mexia Magic Red Hat Society, FUMC committees, activities and has served as Church Organist since 1995. She also enjoyed her bridge club associations. In her "spare time" she volunteered at the Mexia Chamber of Commerce and read weekly to a kindergarten class. As a Mu Phi Epsilon (MPE) member, she served 6 years as International Vice President, as International Competition Chairman, as Province Governor, and as a MPE Foundations Board Member. She was honored to be elected to serve 8 years from 1995-2003 as International President of that very large professional music fraternity with over 75,000 initiated members and around 17,000+ active members. As President, she traveled to 30 states visiting chapters, installed 11 new collegiate chapters and 2 new alumni chapters. She was responsible for revising the international Bylaws as well as the Ritual Book. What she considered one of the most important events of her lifetime was presiding over the MPE Centennial Convention in Cincinnati in 2003, where she was honored to introduce the guest artist for that gala event, her first cousin Harvey Schmidt, who was also honored for his musical creativity, genius and melodies from the musical theater world. He performed one of his best known compositions "Try To Remember" from the longest running Broadway musical of all times "The Fantasticks". At this year's MPE International Convention held in Sacramento, CA, in July, 2014, she received the MPE Lifetime Achievement Award, a well-deserved honor which she cherished. Being raised in a musical family, Wynona and her three sisters and parents performed as a family orchestra while growing up in Waco with all of the sisters playing piano, woodwinds, strings and singing. She and her sisters continued all these years as frequent performers for various church groups and professional organizations with Wynona arranging all their musical scores. Wynona has been a lifetime musician whose parents began nurturing her musical talents with piano lessons at age three. She began as a church organist in the fourth grade playing for Junior Church at Austin Avenue Methodist Church. She was an accomplished pianist, organist, singer, clarinetist, choral director, and UIL choral music adjudicator. Wynona and Don loved family traveling until the children were grown then continued that love of travel. They have been in all 50 states as well as 20 foreign countries. Wynona also had a passion for genealogy and much of her travels included research for the Lipsett and Wieting/Shaw lineages developing and maintaining extensive genealogy records as a result. Wynona is lovingly remembered as a loving and dedicated daughter, wife, mother, grand-mother, great-grandmother (Grammy), sister, niece, cousin, in-law, and friend. Many of her friends were life-long from childhood, school/college days and early career associations which have lasted her entire lifetime. Wynona was preceded in death by her parents and infant brother John Frederick Wieting. She is survived by her husband Donald of Mexia, daughter Michelle Ray and husband David of Forney, TX, son Chuck Lipsett of Forney and daughter-in-law Cheryl Lipsett of Forney. Her beloved Grandchildren are Joshua Wilson and wife Charity, Cody Ray, Aaron Barber, Taylor Lipsett and wife Kathleen, Kaylee Luellen and husband Joseph; Great-Grandchildren Mariah Lipsett, Brynlee Luellen, and Mila Rae Lipsett (due in March 2015); sisters Marcia-Akal Wieting of Denver, CO; and twins Linda Lou McDonald and husband Larry of Gatesville, TX, and Sharon Sue Richardson of Axtel, TX; Brother-in-Law Gordon Lipsett and wife Carol of Richardson, TX; Sisters-in-Law Margaret Lindstrom of Ann Arbor, MI and Faye Cline of TX; many loving nieces, nephews, cousins, one aunt, Thresa Wieting of Houston, TX, and numerous colleagues and friends. ACTIVE pallbearers will be: Joshua Wilson, Cody Ray, Aaron Barber, Taylor Lipsett, Joseph Luellen, Bubba Brumbelow, Larry McCarter, David Truss, and Jett Truss HONORARY Pallbearers are: Jason McDonald, Harvey Schmidt, Bill Wieting, David W Wieting, Paul Wieting, and Roger Wieting Special Family Thank You to Providence Hospice. Memorial Contributions may be made to: Mu Phi Epsilon Foundation Memorials, c/o Beverly Abegg, 8 Phillips Dr., Westford, MA 011886-3409 or First United Methodist Church, 203 North Canton, Mexia, TX 76667.

Visitation Details

Monday, January 5th, 2015 5:00pm - 7:00pm, Blair-Stubbs Funeral Home

Service Information

Tuesday, January 6th, 2015 1:00pm, First United Methodist Church

Interment Details

Tehuacana Cemetery