Doris Ann (Wessels) Pannell

Doris Ann Wessels Pannell

Doris Ann Wessels was born on November 16, 1927 to first-generation German Americans Edna Emma Minnie Kruse and John Johnson Wessels, at home on the Wessels family farm in Runnels County, near Winters, Texas.  She was the second of seven children, three of whom did not survive early childhood, and was raised as part of a widespread but close-knit community of hard-working German immigrant farm families in and around the West Texas Rolling Plains town of Ballinger. She graduated from Ballinger High School in 1944 and attended (what is now) the University of North Texas in Denton, before coming to Dallas in 1948 to seek her fortune.

The former Miss Wessels moved into an Oak Cliff boarding house for young ladies and, being ambitious, highly organized, quick witted, diligent and reliable, soon got an excellent job as an executive secretary for a vice president of Blue Cross, taking the street cars to Ross Avenue daily.  Through friends, it was not long before she was introduced to a devastatingly handsome, personable and persuasive young veteran of the recently ended World War II, Walter Wade Pannell.  They quickly became inseparable and bonded in a marriage that endured more than sixty-five years, producing three children, Barbara Pannell Shields, William Wade Pannell and Judith Pannell Kockos, ending only with Mr. Pannell’s death in July of this year.  She survived him less than three months.

On October 12, 2015, two days after returning from College Station where she had joined a large assembly of herextended family at Peace Lutheran Church for a meal and fellowship, followed by their attending as a group the funeral service of her brother, the late J. C. Wessels, Mrs. Pannell fell ill and died the following day, October 13, 2015, at Texas Healthcare Presbyterian Hospital - Plano.

Throughout her entire life, Mrs. Pannell exemplified the values of her Texas German heritage: to work hard, waste nothing, create and build, socialize and celebrate life’s events with food, drink, music, dancing, and laughter.  Mrs. Pannell regarded inactivity as a wickedness in the eyes of the Lord;to sit idle in her presence was a risk no child and few adults cared to take.  She was an award-winning quilt maker. As a seamstress, she could glance at a Titche’s Department Store window and re-create the displayed dress for her teenage daughters from memory, without a pattern. She crafted, embroidered and sewed endless blankets, doll’s clothes, costumes and myriad items of every description to amaze and delight her children, grandchildren and their friends.

Mrs. Pannell was a talented cook and formidable housekeeper whose kitchen could give lessons in antisepsis to a hospital operating room.  Anyone with muddy shoes would venture there only once and thereafter bear the scarifying memory of icy blue eyes and an acid tongue for a lifetime.  And yet, she was the chief fun maker for all children, an organizer of games and mischief and practical jokes, a Brownie Leader, a Camp Fire Girl Leader, friend and helper of Cub Scouts.  She was, it must be said, a ruthless opponent at Wahoo and other games, taking on children of all generations.  She did not like to lose.

If her memory had to be compressed into a single comforting image, it would be of her sitting with kinfolk before strong coffee, fresh-baked bread and preserves - perhaps her tea cakes, in a farm kitchen at four o’clock of a West Texas afternoon, while the men wait for the cool of dusk to return to the fields.

Mrs. Pannell was predeceased by her husband, Walter Wade Pannell, her brother, J. C. Wessels, her sister, Frances Wessels Miracle, and three siblings who died of childhood illnesses, Rufus Wessels, LeRoy Wessels and Peggy Wessels. She is survived by her three children, Barbara Pannell Shields, William Wade Pannell, and Judith Pannell Kockos; by her younger sister, Arlene Wessels Elkins; six grandchildren, eight great-grandchildren; and by numerous cousins, nieces and nephews.

Her children wish to thank the staff and caregivers of Sonoma House for their patient, kind and loving care of Mrs. Pannell during her residence.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made in memory of Mrs. Pannell to St. John’s Lutheran Church, 1100 W. Parsonage Street, Winters, TX 79567 (tel. 325-754-4820), where her parents were charter members, where Mrs. Pannell was baptized and confirmed and where she and her husband were active members while living in Runnels County.  A large part of the congregation of St. John’s is directly or collaterally kin to Mrs. Pannell by blood or marriage. She kept St. John’s, its beautiful Old World architecture, the congregation and its many celebrations and events over the decades, in her heart always.

A memorial service for Mrs. Pannell will be held at Sonoma House, House #1, 2032 E. Hebron Parkway, Carrollton, Texas 75007 at 10:30 AM on Friday, October 23, 2015, followed immediately by a luncheon for family and friends.  Please RSVP for the luncheon as soon as possible by calling Lori Pannell 210-885-6683 or via email to lori@loriswebsite.com.

Mrs. Pannell’s ashes will be interred beside those of her late husband at DFW National Cemetery, in a future family ceremony.