Carrie Ellen McLain Waller passed away on January 14, 2023, at the Texoma Medical Center in Denison, Texas. She was born in the Elmont community on March 3, 1932, the daughter of G. Cary Dine McLain and Amy Ellen Russell McLain. She graduated from Van Alstyne High School in 1949, having served as basketball captain, head cheerleader, softball pitcher, and class favorite. She married J. C. Waller, Jr., on October 2, 1970, at the First Christian Church in Van Alstyne. She worked at the Howe State Bank in Howe and the Texas Star Bank in Van Alstyne.
Carrie was always involved in local community work. She was a longtime member of the Howe Methodist Church, acting for a time as church treasurer and Sunday school teacher. She was also very much involved with the United Methodist Women, serving as president, secretary, reporter, and in recent years as a member of the Wednesday Workers. She was Howe’s first City Councilwoman, for eleven years, Mayor pro-tem for nine years, and acting Mayor for three months. She designed Howe’s first official flag and Howe’s Centennial Seal, and she authored the “Pledge of Allegiance” to the Grayson County flag. She was instrumental in organizing the Howe ISD Band Booster Club, the Howe ISD Athletic Booster Club, the Howe former student’s organization, the Howe Community Library, the Howe Historical Society, the Howe Chamber of Commerce, and the Cannon Cemetery Association, and she served on the boards of all these organizations. She also participated in and served on the boards of the Howe Founders’ Day Parade, the Howe XYZ Senior Citizens Club, the Howe Community Facilities Development Corporation, the Howe Transportation Policy Advisory Committee, the Grayson County MHMR, the Texoma Coalition “Shots across Texas for Kids” campaign, and she served on the boards of the Grayson County Centennial, Bicentennial, Sesquicentennial, and Millennium Committees. She directed the Grayson County Historical Commission and the Grayson County Cancer Society. She was also a member of the Howe Sesame Club, the Howe ISD PTA, the Howe Young Homemakers, the Howe Snap Center’s “Meals on Wheels” program, and the Howe Friends of the Library. She volunteered at the Grayson County Fair and in Wilson N. Jones Hospital’s Auxiliary “Pink Ladies” program. She was a lifelong member of the Loy Lake Livestock Show. She wrote and edited the Howe Centennial Book in 1972 and, together with her husband, she authored the Hall Cemetery Record Book. For her service, she was named Howe’s Citizen of the Year in 1996 and 2002 and received the Howe Chamber of Commerce’s special award for “Showing us Howe” in 2003. She was also named in the 1975-76 edition of the “Who’s Who of American Women.” At the time of her death, she continued to compile information for the Hall Cemetery Association.
Carrie was preceded in death by her husband, J.C. Waller, Jr., her parents, and by three brothers and their wives: Joe Russell McLain and wife Inez, baby Amos Dine McLain, and John Henry McLain and wife Pinky. She is survived by one son, Joe Henry Elliott, of Montreal, Canada, by a nephew, Carry Dine McLain and his wife Lauren, of Arlington, Texas, by a great nephew, a great niece, and two great grandnephews.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Carrie’s honor to the Grayson County Crisis Center (4200 N. Travis St., Sherman, TX 75092; graysoncrisiscenter.org) or the Hall Cemetery Association (P.O. Box 664, Howe, Texas 75459).
Funeral services will be held at the First United Methodist Church of Howe on Friday, January 20, 2023, at 10:30 a.m.