Alys Collmer

1938 - 2021

Alys Collmer

Oct. 18, 1938 - June 18, 2021

Alys Edney Collmer, 82, passed away Friday, June 18, 2021, in Waco. A graveside service will be 10 a.m., Thursday, June 24, at Oakwood Cemetery. Visitation will be 5 to 7 p.m., Wednesday, June 23, at Wilkirson-Hatch-Bailey Funeral Home.

Alys Gloria Edney was born in New Braunfels to Valeska Bose and Milton Wagner Edney. The family moved to Itasca where her brother, "Buddy" (Milton Wagner Edney, Jr.), was born. The Edney children grew up in Itasca, enjoying playing with friends along the block and visiting their grandparents, who lived next door. Alys spent many hours helping her mother can vegetables and fruits from the large garden she maintained in an empty lot beside their house. After her father, Wag, returned from the TB sanitarium in San Angelo where he had completed a mail order photography class, Alys and Buddy became frequent models as he honed his craft. He even earned his pilot's license and bought a small plane to use for aerial photography. Going up in that little yellow Piper Cub with her dad was a great thrill. Alys graduated from Itasca High School and received her registered nursing degree from Hillcrest Hospital, Waco. In 1969, she joined the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. During her three years of service, she served as an operating room nurse at the Tripler Army Hospital, Honolulu.

She returned to Waco and took a night shift job at the Veteran's Hospital so she could study as she worked on her English degree from Baylor University. Alys loved to read, and a summer English class introduced her to the love of her life. The professor, Dr. Collmer, was a widower who had lost his wife of 32 years the year before. As an older student, Alys noticed Dr. Collmer seemed unusually sad at times, and though her grade in the class was a "B", she sought him out once it ended. (In later years she would always insist with a wink that HE GAVE her a "B" and he would always cheerfully respond that she had EARNED a "B.") Having received two boxes of Godiva chocolates for her birthday that year, she dropped by Dr. Collmer's office to share one with him. Some weeks later, she invited him to the Dallas Ballet on an upcoming Sunday afternoon. That first date led to much joy, and Bob and Alys married on July 4, 1981, before moving to Leiden, Holland, for six weeks while they explored and Bob did some academic research. Travel was a life-long passion for Alys who traveled to England with a group of women in the early 1960s, kickstarting her lifetime of adventures in the US and around the world—as a single woman, an army nurse, and later with Bob, who was Dean of the Graduate School at Baylor. They had a travel company, ABCDERIUM, where Alys was the tour director and Bob was the van driver. In retirement they took numerous tours on land and sea—across six continents. They appreciated their differences as well as their similar interests, as, for example, they took great joy in cancelling out each other's votes in major elections.

Alys, a lifelong Baptist, was a member of Columbus Avenue Baptist Church since she moved to Waco for nursing school. She finished the multi-year Bible Study Fellowship program, rising early every morning for coffee and prayer and Bible reading.

Alys was preceded in death by her husband of 37 years, her parents, and her brother.

She is survived by her stepchildren, Carol and husband Don McLaren, and Mark Collmer; grandchildren, Janet McLaren; Susan and husband, Jon MacMoyle; Christopher Collmer; and Chelsea Collmer.

The family is thankful for the kind care given to Alys by the staff at Heartis Senior Living Memory Care Unit and Visiting Angel Geneva Edwards, who gently encouraged Alys to do just a little bit more each day, as well as Bluebonnet Hospice Services.

Memorials may be made to the Robert G. Collmer Family Archival Research Fellowship Endowed Fund at Baylor University. The family invites you to leave a message or memory on our "Tribute Wall" at www.WHBfamily.com