Wanda Martha Spurgeon Stein, of La Coste, passed away early Friday morning, November 24, 2017 in Castroville, fifty-six days before she would have turned 100 years old. Affectionately known as “Momma or Meme,” she was born February 18, 1918 in Qua Paw, Oklahoma.
She was the oldest of eight children born to Harvey Samuel Spurgeon and Leona Clifford Spurgeon. The family lived in Rising Star, Texas until Wanda was a junior in high school. When her father began drilling water wells in Uvalde, the family moved there, which sadly meant that Wanda had to leave behind all of her friends and her boyfriend in Rising Star. She would tell stories of having to help raise her younger siblings and walking from one end of Uvalde to the other, two to three miles, to go to school. On the way to her school, she had to make sure her brothers and sisters got to their schools also. In 1935, Wanda graduated from Uvalde High School.
On September 5, 1939, Wanda married Clarence Arthur Stein at the Justice of the Peace office in Uvalde. Clarence didn’t have enough money to buy Wanda’s wedding ring, leaving him with only one option. He would have to part with two of his beloved hunting dogs and sell them. When Clarence passed away on September 22, 2007, they had just celebrated their sixty-eighth wedding anniversary.
Wanda was a homemaker, substitute teacher, postal clerk, founder of the La Coste 4-H Club (teaching most of the young girls of La Coste how to cook and sew), was a member of Zion Lutheran Church, Zion Lutheran Church Ladies Organization, previously taught Sunday School and Vacation Bible School at Zion Lutheran Church, assisted with the annual church ham dinner, was a member of the Medina County Home Demonstration Club and was a devoted Spurs fan. She was a strong and independent woman. She could ride a horse as good as anyone, but never learned to drive an automobile. Until 2007, she used a push lawnmower to mow the grass on the seven lots that her home was situated on. She always had a vegetable garden and grew many flowers in her yard.
Wanda was preceded in death by her parents; her husband; grandsons, Cody Wayne Ricks and Jeffrey Shane Ricks; siblings, Lynn Spurgeon, Herman Spurgeon, Samuel Spurgeon, Maxine Howard and Betty Butler Menke.
Survivors include her daughter and son-in-law, Clara and Kenneth Lee Ricks of La Coste; son and daughter-in-law, C.A. Stein, Jr. and Kathy of La Coste; grandchildren, Bill (Jessica) Stein, Georgia Stein (John) Franklin and Randy (Natasha) Stein; great-grandchildren, Katie Stein, Allie Stein, Savanah Stein, Cheyenne Stein and Emilia Franklin; sisters, Faye (Jimmy) Henry of Sabinal, Margie Spurgeon of Junction; as well as numerous nieces, nephews and other relatives.
Visitation will be Thursday, November 30, 2017 from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm at Tondre-Guinn Funeral Home. Funeral Service will be Friday, December 1, 2017 at 10:00 am at Zion Lutheran Church. Interment will follow at Zion Lutheran Cemetery. Memorials may be made in Wanda’s memory to either the Cody Wayne Ricks or Jeffrey Shane Ricks Memorial Scholarship Funds.
Arrangements by Tondre-Guinn Funeral Home.