Johnnie Mae Wren

Lampasas native Johnnie Mae Wren, 91 – wife to the late Worth S. Wren Sr. for 61-plus years, mother of four children, grandmother, great grandmother and homemaker – died Friday, March 16, in Lampasas from an extended illness. She had grown up on a small dairy/subsistence farm in northeast Lampasas and had lived most of her life in Lampasas and San Angelo. Funeral services will be at 2 p.m. Thursday, March 22, in Sneed Funeral Chapel, preceded by visitation at 1 p.m. at the same Lampasas location. Family will preside, with a graveside ceremony at Oak Hill Cemetery. Sneed Funeral Chapel is handling arrangements. Mrs. Wren had been a resident for about two years at Lampasas Nursing & Rehabilitation, where she was known for her spritely banter, cheerfulness and sweet but sometimes obstinate attitude. Mrs. Johnnie Mae Wren had previously rebounded from a series of physical challenges, including two cracked neck vertebrae and aging-related setbacks. As a teenager, she recovered from serious injuries suffered when a vehicle hit her bike. “Mom was a survivor, until her body finally had to give up,” said her daughter, Elizabeth Ann Wren Harmon of Kempner. “Mom worked hard during most of her life, and reared three sons and a daughter, and loved her husband and family.” Worth Wren Sr.’s career was in railroad maintenance, typically working away from home. He died from cancer in 2007. “Mom and Dad worked together through some tough times. But they were prepared for just about anything, after growing up during The Great Depression,” their oldest child, Worth Wren Jr. of Fort Worth, said. Mrs. Wren was born Johnnie Mae Lunsford on Aug. 24, 1926, in her family’s residence in east-northeast Lampasas. Her birth certificate states Aug. 26, but was in error, according to her mother, Mae McHorse Lunsford. The third child of Mae and John Lunsford, Johnnie Mae grew up in northeast Lampasas, in what was known as “the flat.” Her father worked days on the local Santa Fe Railway section crew before and after his daily farm chores. Her mother often milked the cows. Her brother, Hudson Lunsford, was also a railroad worker for a time. Johnnie Mae Lunsford, at age 16, graduated from Lampasas High School in 1943. Then she rode a train with her brother and a cousin to wartime, labor-shortage California to harvest and pack grapes. Like her sister, Mrs. Willard (Almer) Smith, Johnnie Mae worked at Producers’ Produce Co. in Lampasas during the latter part of World War II. They “candled” and broke eggs for dehydration and prep to ship to U.S. military destinations during the war. Mrs. Wren – who had blossomed into a movie-star quality beauty during high school in a town beset by a flood of Fort Hood-based soldiers – recalled having three beaux before she met the Hico/Glen Rose-area native who became her husband. “One of those suitors wanted her to go with him back to California,” Worth Wren Jr. said. Later, along with husband Worth Wren early in their marriage, Mrs. Wren worked again, briefly, at the Producers’ plant, which also slaughtered and processed turkeys and chickens for consumer markets.             Johnnie Mae and Worth were married Dec. 22, 1945, about nine days following his discharge from the U.S. Army, after fighting in five major European battles, including Battle of the Bulge.             “Dad always said, ‘I met your mother on a Saturday and married her the next Saturday,’ ” said her youngest child, Carl D. Wren of Manchaca. The family story told of them meeting at the bus station and dancing that same Saturday night at a dance hall/hamburger café run by one of his brothers in Lampasas.             Worth Wren Jr. said: “Dad’s two sisters and three of his brothers had met Mom previously and told her all about that ‘sweet Worth’ before he arrived in town. . . . They were married in the parsonage of the First Baptist Church pastor at the time.”             As housewife and mother, Mrs. Wren would later return to strenuous jobs in fresh turkey and chicken plucking, processing and packing at the Producers’ plant – working for most of a decade while her children were in Lampasas schools.             “We tried to help her at home after and before school,” said James Wren, her son now residing in Lampasas. “Mom was a great cook, but Worth Jr. had to learn to cook, to fill in for Mom sometimes.”             The family traveled with father on his railroad job assignments before settling in Lampasas, where they resided in 1954-1968 before moving to San Angelo and living there about 22 years. Johnnie Mae and Worth Sr. relocated to Lampasas in the early 1990s.             Mrs. Wren is survived by her four children; nine grandchildren, Kaulean Harmon of Austin, Claire Wren Davis and husband Jeremy Davis of Buda, James “Jamie” Wren Jr. of Dallas, Jennifer Wren White and husband Michael White of Rockwall, Clint Wren and wife Christina Carver Wren of Midland, Michael Wren of San Angelo, Kara Wren of Manchaca and fiancé Josh Henderson of Austin, Johnnie J. Wren and husband Jason McNeillie of Plattsburgh, N.Y., and Chris Wren of San Angelo; five great grandchildren, Bryce and McKenzie White of Rockwall, Chance and Jackson Davis of Buda, and Nolan Wren of Midland; and numerous nephews, nieces and other relatives. Mrs. Wren was preceded in death by her husband, parents, a sister and brother and by her two daughters-in-law, Katherine Wear Wren of Manchaca and Nelda Kay Harvey Wren of Fort Worth; and numerous other relatives. Her son-in-law, Bruce Harmon of Kempner, died from illness Sunday, March 18, in Temple.