Lorena Piper

Lorena Piper, 91, of Canyon died August 5, 2019 in Amarillo. A Memorial service to celebrate her life will be held at 10:00 a.m., Thursday, August 8 at Brooks Chapel in Canyon with David Lough and Bob Shepard officiating. Burial will follow at Dreamland Cemetery. Arrangements are by Brooks Funeral Directors of Canyon.

A child of the Great Depression years, Lorena was born June 28, 1928 to Jack and Rilla Clounch Piper in Canyon. Life was hard, and she learned to live sparingly and work hard. Her first job was making shakes, malts and serving ice cream at a drug store on the square, and she later worked for the telephone company. She loved swimming in the pool in the basement of Old Main and participated in water ballets there. Lorena graduated high school from West Texas Demonstration School and earned a teaching degree from West Texas State Teachers College. She first taught at Skellytown but spent the majority of her career teaching First Grade at Alice Landergin Elementary School in Amarillo. She loved her students, and they adored her. She gave them hugs, love, skills, and encouragement as she taught them reading, writing, and math. She loved reading aloud to her students, and spent time and money finding books at garage sales that she gave to her students to foster reading at home. She twice defeated cancer.

After retiring from teaching, she taught for many years in the Cradle Roll Class at church, teaching babies the love of God from their earliest days. She made a new career of quietly supplementing the educations of select students she had observed who were faithful in their religious beliefs, worked hard, and wanted to serve others. Her gifts were always “Anonymous,” so the students likely never knew from whence their supplement came.

Preceding her in death were her parents and her grandparents who had actually reared her—William Wilkerson Clounch and Virgie May Roberson Clounch. She is survived by several cousins in Alabama, Tennessee, California, and Texas.

Her greatest joy in life was in serving others by finding the exact items at bargain shops, estate and garage sales that she knew they liked. She carried a list of their sizes and favorite colors, even lists of items that they were looking for, with her as she shopped. She loved delivering her surprises to her special friends. She was a faithful member of the University Church of Christ in Canyon and had been a member there from early childhood when her grandfather served as elder.

Because she was such a great believer in education, in lieu of flowers, memorial gifts may be made to the Lorena B. Piper Scholarship Fund at University Church of Christ, 3400 Conner Dr., Canyon, TX 79015, or donations to the Church of Christ Bible Chair, 302 24th St., Canyon, TX, 79015.