Jan Walters

Mary Jannette (Jan) Chaffin Walters of Lorena, Texas went home to be with Jesus for all the endless ages. She will be waiting for us to join her there when God decides that we have finished our work He has chosen us to do for Him here. She passed from this life on earth to heaven just before the last hours of April 5, 2022 were ending.

Funeral services will be at 10 am Monday, April 11 at Cottonwood Baptist Church, 886 FM 2643, Lorena with Pastor Jon Crosby officiating and music by Crosby Quartet (Pastors Tim, David, Danny and Jon). Following immediately after the service will be burial at the Lorena Cemetery, 846 S. Front Rd, Lorena.

The family will receive visitors from 2-4 pm Sunday, April 10 at Pecan Grove Funeral Home, 3124 Robinson Dr., Waco.

Jan was born 12:15 p.m. Dec. 16, 1939 in Providence Hospital, Waco, preceded by twin sister Ann the previous day at 11:55 p.m. to Wendell Chaffin and Betty Gray Saunders Chaffin. She joined older brother Tom Chaffin in their Spring Valley home and was followed by the births of her sister Kay Chaffin Galloway and brother Tony Chaffin. Jan attended Lorena schools, graduating in 1958.

On June 13, 1958 she married her husband Jerry Walters of Levi at the Cottonwood Baptist Church. They got started to becoming grade school/high school sweethearts in the fall of 1951 when Jerry and sister Wanda entered classes at Lorena (Jerry as a freshman, Wanda as a 6th grader). Almost immediately Jan and Wanda became best of friends and they would often spend nights together at each other's home. That's how Jan and Jerry first met and it resulted in their becoming girl-friend/boy friend. Eventually they began dating, but for a pretty long time that could only happen only if Jerry took Ann too. But there came a night when Ann did not have to accompany them, and Jerry proposed to Jan who immediately responded positively.

By the time Jan graduated from Lorena, Jerry was graduating from college and a couple of weeks after Jan's graduation they were married. They lived first in Waco in an affordable ($20 a month) 4-room garage apartment on Washington Ave. Three months later they moved to Fort Worth where they both enrolled for classes at Southwestern Seminary. They lived there for two semesters, moving back to live briefly in Waco before becoming long-time residents of Crawford when Jerry became pastor of the Baptist church there. Jan transferred credits from the seminary to Mary Hardin-Baylor where she got her college degree.

Three children came along and Jan was not only a perfect mother but also a perfect pastor's wife. She taught Sunday School classes and eventually began a kindergarten in the church. Eventually when public schools added kindergarten Jan was hired to begin the first one at Robinson, where she spent several years teaching. Ultimately she became the first grade teacher at Crawford where she excelled in teaching and making lasting friendships until she retired.

That led to her having time to spot a 90-year-old Victorian house in McGregor which led to Jerry and Jan purchasing it and doing major restoration work. That eventually turned into the Lighthouse Bed and Breakfast which Jan operated (mostly by herself because Jerry has never yet retired from work) for 25 years when she was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease. That meant climbing to the second and third floors would become extremely difficult for her so that resulted in their moving back to Lorena almost nine years ago. A home in the country had been their dream for a long time because McGregor, as well as even Crawford were just too big for these two who had grown up in the open country. And Jerry was determined to keep her in the country until God called her home--which came to pass (much too soon) last Tuesday.

Jan was preceded in death by her parents, Wendell and Betty Gray Saunders Chaffin; her grandparents, Dick and Frances (Fannie} Saunders, and Ola Mae Anthony Chaffin and husband Thomas Chaffin; her uncle Weldon Chaffin and wife Lola; her cousin, LaJean Chaffin, and brother-in-law Robin Eastman, and son Kenneth Neal Walters.

Left behind to cherish her memory are her husband, Jerry; her son Kevin and wife Griselda and her daughter, Karla Jan Walters Cunningham and husband Mark; her grandchildren Mary Hannah Cunningham, Caleb Cunningham, Elijah Cunningham, and Silas Cunningham, Alexica Walters Davis and husband Martin, Angelica Walters Ramsey and husband Preston, and Avery Walters; great-grandson, John Davis; her brothers, Tom Chaffin and Tony Chaffin; and her sisters, Frances Annette Chaffin Cox and husband David and Kay Chaffin Galloway and husband Wilbur; her sisters-in-law Wanda Walters and husband Ken, Sherry Fifer and husband Dave, and Joni Eastman; brother-in-law Carrol Michmershuizen and wife Judy;nephews Bryan Chaffin, Tanner Chaffin, Gary Cox and wife Ramona, Brad Galloway and wife, and Scott Fifer and wife Kim; nieces Vickie Bennett and husband Archie, Lori Moss and husband Rick, Michele Michmershuizen, Andrea Fifer Spoelstra, cousin Lowell Chaffin; along with many other extended family, cousins, and very cherished friends.