Janet Wofford Ingram, a descendant of early cattleman and Indian fighter Ross Kennedy, was born to William Mitchell and Margery Peters Wofford on Nov. 30, 1914, in the small southwest Texas town of Sabinal in Uvalde County. She died in Austin on March 29, 2016. She was 101 years old. Janet and her sister, Isabel, started school in Sabinal but moved to Austin with their widowed mother who had taken a teaching job there. In 1931, Janet graduated from Austin High School and worked her way through the University of Texas, graduating in 1937 with a Bachelor of Science in chemistry and a minor in zoology. In Eagle Pass, where she taught English to preschoolers, she met her future husband, Temple Byrn Ingram of Terrell, Texas, a civil engineer working on an irrigation project known to this day as “the Ditch.” They spent many an evening dining and dancing at the Cafe Moderno across the river in Piedras Negras, Mexico, but did not immediately marry. Janet left for a year as a laboratory technician at Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena, California, and Temple waited for her in Austin, where he worked for the Texas Highway Depertment. On her return, Janet worked at Brooks General Hospital in San Antonio until they married in 1941 and she joined him in Austin. Soon after the U.S. entered WWII, they returned to San Antonio, where Janet remained while Temple was stationed overseas. When he returned in 1946, he took a job as resident engineer with the highway department, and they moved to Gilmer, in the piney woods of northeast Texas. After almost 40 years in Gilmer, raising four children and actively participating in community affairs, Janet and Temple moved back to the Hill Country she so loved. While living near Johnson City and in Austin, Janet continued her civic involvement and also enjoyed the Austin Symphony, the Austin Lyric Opera, picnic lunches on the banks of Town Lake and among the peacocks at Mayfield Park, and time with family and friends at the house on the Pedernales. Janet was a lifelong Democrat, with an abiding interest in politics. Into the last weeks of her life, she was discussing the 2016 presidential campaigns with her children and looking forward to voting for Hillary Clinton in November. All her life Janet loved learning new things, books, baseball, bridge, Scrabble, crosswords, travel, her family, and her friends, renewing old friendships and beginning new ones wherever she went. She had a great laugh and a beautiful smile. Janet was preceded in death by her parents, her husband,Temple, and her beloved sister, Isabel Wofford Weller. She is survived by her children, Margaret Ingram, Patricia Ingram and husband, Steve Edwards, and Temple Ingram, Jr., and wife, Janet, all of Austin, and Jim Ingram and wife, Charli, of Driftwood, eight grandchildren, fifteen great-grandchildren, and a host of nieces, nephews, and friends. A memorial service will be held in the Murchison Chapel of the First United Methodist Church, 1201 Lavaca, in Austin, on Saturday, April 16, at 3 p.m., followed by a reception for friends and family at Janet’s townhouse at 1 Woodstone Square, inAustin. Valet parking will be provided at Woodstone. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, www.wildflower.org, or a charity of your choice. An extended obituary, memorial guestbook, and slide show are available online at www.wcfish.com.
THE PRECEDING IS A PAID OBITUARY