Marilynn Lee 'Lynn' Campbell Christian was a woman of grace, generosity, elegance, and a wry sense of humor. She was a seeker of real beauty and wisdom, and lived for her family and circle of friends in every stage of life.

Lynn was born June 29, 1933 in Vinita, Oklahoma, to Harry Lee and Harriet Laverne Campbell. She was an only child to doting parents for twelve years, and then a little sister, Carolyn Ann, joined the family during the last days of WW2. Lynn recorded beautiful, descriptive reminiscences about her childhood in a journal she created about 30 years ago. (Some excerpts are enclosed below.)

The family moved to North Texas in 1943, and she graduated from Denison High School and continued her education at North Texas State, earning a Library Science degree in only three years. It was at North Texas that she met Frank Morris Christian, and they married soon after her graduation from college, in December 1953. Their wedding was memorable in that Lynn's wedding dress caught on fire from a space heater in the church, but she was unharmed, as the back of the dress was quickly snuffed out. Frank and Lynn lived in Odessa, Texas, and moved to El Paso, Texas, in 1959, where Frank began coaching football at El Paso High School.

Julie Ann was born in 1958, and Jana Lee in 1963. Lynn was devoted to her home, family, meals, gardening, and volunteering at church. She was active in her children's school activities, served as a class room mother most years, was elected as President of the Woman's Missionary Union many years at First Baptist Church El Paso, and coordinated many of the youth trips and activities there. Her family was first priority, and they knew it. She took great pleasure in sewing beautiful clothes for Julie and Jana, and they spent many hours in fabric stores searching for patterns and the perfect materials.

She loved to entertain, often setting up potluck affairs for her large circle of friends and children's friends. The home was always open to one and all, and dining was usually informal on TV trays when there were too many guests to seat at the dining table. She loved church youth group work, bible studies, volunteer work of all kinds, and being active in social organizations. She loved to read (especially espionage) and bake, and in later years enjoyed traveling frequently with Frank. They visited England, Scotland, and Alaska many times. In Lynn's words, she loved to "hop the pond." She felt a strong affinity for the Cherokee side of her family, but she also felt a strong pull toward her Scottish roots, and loved a perfect high tea.

When her girls were in high school, Lynn began serving as the children's librarian at Mesita Elementary School. She created a love for reading in many, many children.

As grandchildren began to arrive, she and Frank began including them in their travels, and also hosted them for camp during summers at Fort Davis. Her grandchildren were all important to her, and about this time, they bought a home in Ruidoso to host family gatherings. Many happy family and friendship memories were created there during summers and holidays. This getaway, Nana's and Grandpa's cabin, was always Lynn's happy place in the mountains.

In Ruidoso, Lynn was active in volunteer work at First Baptist Church, developed a close circle of friends at Curves (her workout party place), volunteered at a resale store benefitting the local animal shelter, and became good friends with many neighbors. Frank continued to work in El Paso and joined her on weekends, and after many happy years enjoying the mountains, they sold this home and moved to Blue Skies of Texas, where they took pleasure in making new and wonderful friends.

Lynn was preceded in death by her parents, Harriet Laverne and Harry Lee Campbell; her beloved husband, Frank Morris Christian; and her nephew, Steven Thomas Williams.

Lynn's love for her family and friends was deep and wide and extended into their lives. Left to cherish her memory are daughters, Jana Christian Wiant and husband Jason Wiant (Bedford, Texas), Julie Christian Rosenbaum and partner Ron Lange (Waco, Texas); grandchildren, Sarah Evan (Boise, Idaho), David Christian and partner Laura St. Andrews (Queensbury, New York), and Jacob Christian (Savannah, Georgia); sister, Carol Ann Williams (Martinsville, Indiana); and nieces, Laurie Lynn and Angela Kay; and many beloved friends.

We will miss her greatly, but she left us with so much for which we are grateful. She left us all with an appreciation for simple beauty, whether it is the beauty of nature, a hike in the woods, a stroll around the lake at Blue Skies, or an appreciation of creative craftsmanship. All three of her grandchildren are artists of some kind. She also left us with a sense of wisdom and lifelong learning. It is with a deep sense of gratitude that her family writes this tribute of a pure and true love. Her kind, gentle, generous spirit will continue to inspire all of us to be the same.

The family would like to express their deep appreciation for her loving caregivers at Liberty House and Blue Skies, especially Marsha Lloyd, Sherry Woodard, Sheila, and Amabeli (AA Care Services), who treated her like family these last few years. We cannot express enough gratitude to Brenda and Uwe Fohlmeister, Debbie and Don Christian, Carolyn Massello, and many other dear friends at Blue Skies for the countless hours they spent making her life much brighter and fuller these last few years, and for making her laugh a lot. She left this world peacefully, surrounded by loving and dear friends and caregivers.

A Memorial Service will be held at 1:00 p.m. on Thursday, June 29, 2023 at Blue Skies of Texas – West High Flight Chapel in San Antonio, Texas.

In lieu of flowers, memorials can be made to Gideons International https://www.sendtheword.org/

Or

Fort Worth Christian School Library

Attn: Fine Arts Director

6200 Holiday Lane

North Richland Hills, Texas 76180

https://www.fwc.org/giving/designated-giving

Excerpts From the Journal of Lynn Christian About Her Childhood

(written while she was in her early sixties)

It was fun growing up in the small town of Vinita, Oklahoma, with grandparents close by, and Mother's mother (Moma), came to live with us some of the time. I can still see Moma wringing the chicken necks and then dunking them in boiling water to pick off the feathers. It was awful—almost made you not want to eat the wonderful fried chicken she produced.

My great-grandmother, Granny, also lived ten miles away in Big Cabin and had been born in the Choctaw Nation on Red River. I loved the summers, just being out in the country and taking baths outside in a #2 tub of well water that had been warmed by the sun all day. We also slept on feather mattresses that had to be fluffed every day. We had never heard of allergies in those days. The back porch had a rain barrel at one end that caught rain to wash our hair and for special washing of clothes. Everyone in those days was a very good cook and only had fresh foods to deal with. Sometimes in the summer they would show movies on the wall of the general store. That was a real treat.

Growing up during the Depression years left all of us with a different sense of worth as compared to life today. No one had much, and the soup lines were long in all towns and cities. Our family always had food on the table, and for that we were grateful. My mother and father had a large garden and lots of chickens. My grandfather had a farm and lots of cattle and pigs. All of our family had food, and we shared accordingly as we had. There were hobos often at our door, and my mother always fed them, and the word spread rapidly that our house was willing to help out all who came. We could hardly envision that today because of the fear of strangers and the dangers they might bring. It was hard not to be trusting in those days.

My great-grandfather fought in the Civil War for the North, and there were a great deal of problems when he got with Grandfather's bunch because Grandmother Campbell's family fought for the South. At any rate, they all ended up in the Oklahoma territory. My grandfather, Harry Jacob, got his first land in the Great Oklahoma Land Rush. They farmed there and ran cattle and had nine children. When he became sheriff of Vinita, he ran on the Republican ticket in a Democratic stronghold, and that was always a point of pride. The only time, and this was only surmise, that he ever voted Democratic was for President Franklin Roosevelt.  He was elected three times, so he must have been pretty good.

My father had five sisters and one brother who lived. I have to say here also that Daddy was considered kind of a black sheep in the family. He was pretty much a loner that did his own thing and had also married an Indian. There was as much prejudice against the Indians in Oklahoma as there was against Blacks in the South. But even though Grandmother and Granddaddy had ten other grandchildren, they always me feel I was very special to them. Grandmother loved for me to brush her hair, and we would spend a lot of time swinging on the front porch. The telephone had just become available to everyone, and she did spend a lot of time just talking to people. She was active in church affairs, Eastern Star, and the Rebeccas. Grandaddy was a big Mason, so they did a lot of Lodge doings.

I was born at home, even though Mother had a doctor. As mentioned, there was much prejudice against the Indians and us until we moved later to Denison, Texas, during the war. My mother did not tolerate anything other than everyone being equal. When I was in the 8th grade, we moved back to Oklahoma for one year, and it was then I began to get the picture of how some of the family felt about Indians. But Grandmother Campbell loved me and told me they were just not smart enough to know better, and I could just put it down to ignorance.

The banks closed the year I was born. Our country was in a depression. Hitler also came to power in Germany the year of my birth. What a historic time to get born! Germany was in a bad depression, and I guess he seemed like some sort of salvation for them. By 1937, England got a new king when Edward abdicated for the love of Wallace Simpson. George IV and Elizabeth came into power there, and they were a good pair.

The years between 1933 and 1940 brought many changes in the world. War in Europe was looming, and the US wanted to stay out of it, but it was getting harder and harder to stay neutral. We helped England as much as we could without actually going to war. This is when the Frisco Railroad started doing business with the Katy RR. Daddy went to work on the Katy, and worked out of Denison, TX. My mother and I would visit Daddy periodically, and we stayed with him at the boarding house. We ate out a lot, and Mother and I would go to the movies when Daddy was out. At that time, I always saved a last bite of my meal to eat after we had our dessert. Everyone thought that was so funny, but Daddy always saw to it that I had my last bite. At that time, I was quite heavy. I did like to eat, and ate most everything.

Spring always brought the Will Rogers Rodeo to town with a parade and carnival. It was a big thing, and I always got new boots with a tassel on them. One time my Uncle Jack, Mother's brother, went to the carnival and lost all his money, and Uncle Skilly got drunk and landed in jail. Most of my mother's family ended up at our house all the time and wanted Daddy to fix everything. I guess he did because it all came out fairly well, but my dad's family always blamed the family incidents on the irresponsible Indians.

Summers were spent playing inside a lot because of the heat. The town library was air conditioned, and so mother and I spend a lot of time there in the afternoons. We also went to the movies. No one had anything but a fan to keep cool, so we put a pallet on the floor in front of the window and just read or played paper dolls until it cooled off. Then people came out on their porches and visited. Life was simple, and we were all united in respect and to help each other.

My mother sewed a lot and made all my clothes. Her machine was in the kitchen corner, along with a canary that sang all the time. Moma also made all my doll clothes on the machine and by hand. My father owned a filling station at that time on the other side of town. Daddy was not strong on discipline, and when Mother would spank me or switch me, I couldn't wait for Daddy to get home so I could tell him now mean she had been to me. It never helped, but I did try. They stood together at all times. Daddy was not a good business man, and it didn't take him too long to lose his shirt in the station business.

I think I was really spoiled growing up. I was the only grandchild on my mother's side, and Moma thought I was a perfect child. Consequently, I always had nice dolls and a lovely doll house to play with. Coloring books and paper dolls were abundant. Moma spent a lot of time with me, and we made scrap books with cut-out poetry and pictures. She always read to me, and I loved all the fairy tales, mysteries, and real-life stories. I have to say I was a bit possessive with my things, but this was never a problem because I had mostly boys to play with, and they didn't care too much for my dolls. There was always the outside playhouse and a swing set to share with them.

In 1942, Pearl Harbor happened, and our country did go to war. Daddy's job was considered essential to the war effort, so we moved to Denison, Texas. He tried to join the army but had flat feet and was needed on the railroad. We closed up our house in Vinita and moved to an apartment house in Denison.

When I was twelve, my sister Carolyn was born. My grandmother had come to help, and we slept downstairs in the guest room. I loved sleeping in there because the bed was a big four poster and had foot steps up to get into the bed. I felt like Scarlet O'Hara. Anyway, when Mother went into labor in the afternoon, she did not pay any attention to it and almost waited too late to tell anyone. They called a taxi and rushed off leaving me behind to wait by myself. That was bad for me because no one had enlightened me as to what was going on, and I was too dumb to know anything. Even farm families knew when and where babies come from, but not me. They did get to the hospital in time, but Carolyn was nearly born in the elevator. In a few days they came home, and I was so glad the baby was a girl.

When I finished 7th grade, we moved back to Vinita to our old house. The war was over, and the railroads were not busy, and Daddy was needed more in Oklahoma. Daddy's uncle Oat was a constant at our house, and I loved him dearly. He was a retired railroader. Unfortunately, he was also an alcoholic. He would go on binges and be gone for days, and nobody knew where. Then he would surface again and be fine for a long time until the next one. He was just a fun person to have around, and he thought my mother hung the moon, and there was nothing he wouldn't do for us.

After 8th grade, my dad got transferred back to Denison, TX. This move was going to be a permanent situation for us. When I enrolled on the first day of school, there were a lot of kids I remembered, and so life became pretty good again. This was the beginning of a group of us that went through high school together, and all of us went on to college and kept in touch. There were twelve of us, six boys who were the Gofers, and six girls who were the Goferettes. We did everything together, even playing hooky from school. Miss Tarpley, our history teacher, really gave us a hard time because we got away with so much. We loved her anyway.

There is nothing I remember from my high school days that was not a good memory. We went to every football game, in town and out of town, had school dances, swimming parties at the lake, slumber parties where the parents had a hard time keeping the boys out, and even went to each other's churches. The girls were all Rainbow Girls, and we were very active in that, as well as school clubs and organizations. Of course, boys were the object of everything we girls did or didn't do. I had friends other than our little "clique" that I cared a lot about. Friends that were at church and others clubs. I guess having friends in all parts of my life has always been very important to me.

Up to this point in my narrative, it sounds as if my life was idyllic growing up. When looking back, we tend to only remember the happy times and skip over the not-so-happy times. In my life, it is probably not as simple as that. In my family, no one ever talked about anything that was unpleasant or caused much strife. It was that way on both sides. I was almost an adolescent before I realized that people fussed and disagreed with each other. I didn't know married couples ever disagreed or had in-law problems. There is no memory of Granny dying or what happened to her after death. Money was often a problem, but we always had enough; there was so much unemployment in the country, but we had a good president who was fixing things in that area, and we always had enough to share with the hobos.

My dad didn't always have a job, but somehow things always worked out, and no one ever told me if we were bad off. When Grandmother died, the aunts did not want me to come to the funeral because I was so close to her, and it would distress me too much. That made my very angry because I was certainly old enough, and I loved her dearly. There should have been some closure for me, but my dad always adhered to whatever his sisters deemed right. Consequently, until we moved to Texas, did I come to an understanding of what life was really like.

The best thing that happened to me at that time was a life changing experience that has directed my life all my life from then to now. These were the war years, and we lived in an amazing neighborhood for those times. On one side of us lived a lovely Christian couple. The family members had been Baptist missionaries in Hawaii, and the husband had been killed during the raid on Pearl Harbor. At that time all missionaries without menfolk had to be brought home for the time being. Mrs. Tye thought her daughter Ada needed Bible study on a regular basis, so she started a class for all the children in the neighborhood. We met early in the mornings before school. It was a wonderful learning time for me, and I gave my life to Jesus Christ then when I was 12 years old. I will always remember Mrs. Tye and be grateful to her for leading me to understand the way to live my life.

I have not always succeeded, but have always tried to do my best. It also gave me the strength to understand and accept all the changes in my life at that time.