Wylie Walden

Wylie Walden Sam to many of his old friends, Coach Walden to many, and Papa or Papa Wylie to his children and nieces and nephews took his last breath after a very short battle with pneumonia on July 4th, 2014, at the age of 82 years old.



A graveside service will be heldThursday, July 10th, at 10:30 a.m. , at Hillcrest Cemetery in Uvalde on Highway 90 West. Hillcrest Cemetery is on the right, just past Ophelias . Please feel free to dress comfortably and casually. That same day, immediately following the graveside service, there will be a reception in the ballroom of the Uvalde Country Club, celebrating Wylies love of life, his family, his friends, and all the people who populated his life and were dear to him. The road between Burger King and Tractor Supply in Uvalde leads straight into the country club. Everybody who knew Wylie is welcome to come to his service, the reception, or the Wednesday evening visitationfrom 5 to 7 p.m. at Rushing, Estes, Knowles Mortuary in Uvalde.



Wylie Sam Walden was preceded in death by his father and mother, Samuel and Rachel Walden, and his beloved predeceased wife Amelia Armistead Walden. He took his place in heaven with them on July 4th, 2014.



If you could say just one thing about Wylie Walden, it would have to be that he never met a stranger. He cared about peopleand he made sure that they knew it. He is survived by a large family of close friends and relatives, all of whom he loved dearly and who loved him. Among them are his and Amelias three children: Amanda Pechacek and husband Julian, Lawson Wylie Walden and wife Tammy, and Samuel Brock Walden and fianc Melissa Genetti Wylie and Amelias four grandchildren : James Lee and wife Rachel, Bonnie Lee, Samuel Bracken Walden, and Mary Lawson Walden. He is also survived by Amelias sister, Estelle DuBose and her brother Chico Armistead. Wylie also leaves behind his and Amelias four nieces: Beth WaldenFisher and husband Maurice, Allison Tomas and husband Don, Sarah McSween and husband Paul, and Jill Budde , as well as Wylie and Amelias three nephews : William Porter Walden, Win DuBose and wife Camile, and Hunter Armistead and wife Kerry. Wylie is also survived by his and Amelias precious godson Byron Capt and Byrons parents, Carper and Becky Capt.


Wylie is also survived by his beloved second wife, Roberta Walden, and her two children: R J Calk and Kim Grace with husband Sanderfierd, and her five grandchildren : Kayla Nicole ChangCalk, Brady Grace, Zuzi Calk, Xander Calk, and Ben Grace, all of whom adored him. He is survived, too, by Robertas brother Brad Bradley and his wife Jo Marie Stark Bradley and Robertas sisters, Liz Kring and her husband Billy, and Phoebe Bradley. He also leaves behind Robertas nieces and nephews : Heath and Chanc Bradley, Tasha Bates, Tammy Sinclair, Robert Schofner, and Michelle Campbell.



Wylie is also survived by his own beloved baby brother, Max Walden, and Maxs cherished companion, Carol. Wylie leaves behind many cousins very, very dear to him, as well as uncountable good and beloved friends, all of whom he cared for deeply. Among those many and uncountable friends are his concuo, as Wylie called his dear friend and brotherinlaw, Tom DuBose his four surviving Crow brothers: Earl Fowler and wife Barbara, Gene Hendrickson, Al Camp, and Russell Young, and the surviving members of the Wylie and the Coyotes band : Tom DuBose, Carl Lee Hellums, Johnny Rambie, and Dusty Huddleston.



Wylie grew up on the Fort Sam Houston Army Base in San Antonio. When Wylie was about nine years old, World War II took many fathers overseas. With so many little boys with absentee dads, Fort Sam implemented boys clubs with organized activities in order to provide positive role models and father surrogates for the boys whose fathers were serving their country. Wylies group was called the Crows. The friendships formed in this group have lasted for over seventy years. All of the boys who were members of the group became fine men, met their responsibilities, and have continued their Crows alliance throughout their lives. This and his Church of Christ upbringing and its a capella singing were substantial early formative influences.



Wylie graduated from Brackenridge High School and attended San Antonio College, and he was very proud of his affiliation with both of these schools. He then attended and graduated from Abilene Christian College A C U today, of which he was extremely proud as well. It was there that he began his guitar pickin and singin career. According to his brother, Max, as well as from documentation in an old school paper clipping that Wylie kept, Wylie and his band would pitch up an amplifier cord to the second floor of the girls dorm to get electricity so that they could serenade the girls.



When Wylie graduated from ACC, he joined the army as a physical therapist assistant and was stationed in France. Wylie won an allarmy singing contest and, much to the dismay of his commanding officer, was sent to play music at USOs for quite some time in several other European countries.



After his threeyear army commitment, Wylie moved to Uvalde to accept a position teaching history and coaching girls basketball at Uvalde High School. He met and married Amelia Armistead who loved people as much as he did. They lived a robust and happy life brimfilled with his and Amelias family and good, close friends until Amelia was taken away by cancer.


During his career as an educator, Wylie taught high school history and coached baseball and B team football as well as girls basketball. Coach Walden remained very dear to these high school students and athletes to the end of his life, and they were dear to him. Later in his educational career, Wylie attended the University of North Texas during the summer in order to earn his principal and superintendent certifications. After earning his principal certification, he became principal of Robb, Anthon, and Dalton schools during the mandated rotational years. Eventually, he became, superintendent of Knippa Independent School District, and he retired as superintendent there. At every juncture in his career, Wylie gained the respect and admiration of the teachers, staff, students, and parents with whom he was associated. Wylie was the sort of educator who always kept sight of the fact that school was a journey, not a destination, and he always kept the whole child in mind when meting out necessary discipline or grades.



Wylie was not one to be idle, even during his leisure hours. He loved being busy, whether he was singing on the Louisiana Hayride, which was arranged by a cousin of his, fishing with his sons, pickin and singin at home or in a crowd , or simply organizing his cowboy boots. For many years, he was an avid Lions Club member, and he proudly served a term as Lions Club president. Wylie was once a lay reader for the Episcopal Church, he coached Little League baseball, and he won the UvaldeaRama barbeque cookoff contest three years in a row. He rounded up a group of Uvalde friends and formed a band, Wylie and the Coyotes, and they performed many times in Uvalde. The Coyotes were Tom DuBose, Carl Lee Hellums, Johnny Rambie, Dusty Huddleston and Bill Graves.


When Wylie retired from education, he became a Realtor and , finally, a dealer in western collectibles and antiques. It gave him many, many hours of enjoyment to arrange his things just so in his antique booths at Market Square Antiques, Antiques on the Square, Opera House Antiques, Murchison Wagon Wheel Antiques , and the Canton Civic Center, as well as at vendor booths at annual cowboy poetry or cowboy collector gatherings, such as the Miles City bucking horse sale in Miles City, Montana, the Red Steagall chuckwagon cookoff and cowboy poetry gathering in Fort Worth, the Brian Lebel western collectibles show and auction in Cody, Wyoming, and Denver, Colorado, the Pikes Peak cowboy gathering in Manitou Springs, Colorado, the New Mexico Gun Club Show adjacent to the Cowboys and Indians show and sale at the Albuquerque , New Mexico , Fairgrounds, the White Hawk show and sale in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and the High Noon show and sale in Mesa and Phoenix, Arizona. He was a life member of the Bit and Spur Association, and, as throughout his life, Wylie gained many, many dear friends trading and selling antiques and western collectibles across the western United States.


Wylie wasnt a race track gambler, but he once told someone who made a comment to him that it was only in a long shot that a race track gambler ever won big. He told a friend that he was betting on a long shot when he married Roberta Tramell, a Southwest Texas Junior College English instructor, who fell head over heels in love with him the moment that she met him. And Wylie was, indeed, lucky in love a second time. Wylie knew that Roberta remained headoverheels in love with him to the moment that he breathed his last breath. They were married seventeen years and eight months, and she was devoted to him every one of the days in each one of those years and each one of those months. They traveled together each summer when Roberta was on vacation from teaching, and they tried to do at least eight summer western collectible shows every summer. They twostepped their way through their seventeenandahalf years with love, happiness, and gusto. During the school year, Wylie would work his booths during the day and enter antique and collectible purchases and sales into his inventory book at night while Roberta taught during the day and graded English papers in the evenings. Every weekend that they had the opportunity, they headed out to a flea market or an estate sale during the day and to Gruene Hall in Gruene, Broken Spoke in Austin , Arkey Blues in Bandera, or Sisters in Mabank in the evening. They especially enjoyed the songwriter Billy Joe Shaver and the fiddle player Alvin Crow.



Wylie was gifted with a magnetic personality and an enjoyment of people, and he enjoyed having the people around him be happy because of him. The world was, indeed, his stage, and, to use an antique dealers term, he was an exceptionally fine actor on that stage .

Visitation

RushingEstesKnowles Mortuary
220 S. Getty St.
Uvalde, TX  78801
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
9:00 AM

Service

Graveside Service

Hillcrest Cemetery
Hwy. 90 West
Uvalde, TX  78801
Thursday, July 10, 2014
10:30 AM

Family will greet visitors

RushingEstesKnowles Mortuary
220 S. Getty St.
Uvalde, TX  78801
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
5:00700 PM