LaDarla Walker Keith
(1936-2014)

      

LaDarla wrote the following to start these pages:
WELCOME! My name is La Darla Walker Keith and I started this Wise County Page in 1996 to be sure our county would be represented on the Web. My first ancestors to arrive in Texas came in 1821-23. My Wise County ancestors came later. We will be posting information of historical and genealogical interest on this page. Sue Tackel, David Pitts and I have worked together on most of the projects you will see at this web site. **Please Note** All information posted on this web site is believed to follow copyright guidelines; if anyone discovers otherwise, such material will be removed upon notification. 
WELCOME!
La Darla Walker Keith

Click on the thumbnails below to read any of the following articles - 

County of the Year Article.jpg (1289892 bytes)   Messenger Article - 2011-01-27-pg06.jpg (1287574 bytes)   Cem Article page 1.jpg (236911 bytes)   Cem Article page 2.jpg (253041 bytes)

    Thank you to all the people that wrote sympathy notes. Over the years LaDarla helped people from all over the country with their genealogy research. Thank you also to those who made donations in her name to the Wise County Historical Society/Heritage Museum.

The Legacy of LaDarla Keith as written by David Pitts:

    La Darla always led us Wise County volunteers by example. We will miss her deeply, but will carry on with her dream.
    La Darla was a true pioneer getting involved with rootsweb back in 1996 starting as she said "Blue Sky" for free sharing of data on the rather primitive internet in those days.
    In 1998 La Darla and Sue did their epic work with their 2 year project of imaging and indexing all the headstones in Wise County and making the data available in both book form and over the internet on the TXWISE Genweb site. No doubt this effort may have influenced the "Find a Grave" pioneers to provide a way for everybody to freely contribute their photos of headstones for the benefit of all.
    Then in 2008 when the LDS wrote me a "prissy" (as La Darla said) letter about data sharing of their microfilm images (Wise County birth and death records), La Darla wrote me a nice letter of support telling me just to sit tight and wait and see if they pursued it any further. And, of course, they didn't, and now the LDS is doing exactly the same thing by imaging their microfilm and making it freely available on the web.
    In 2009 La Darla was hospitalized for a while and wrote a nice note thanking everyone for their support.
    Then January 20, 2011 the Wise County Gen Web site was judged as "County of the Year"!!!!!
    Her legacy will live on! We are all so very fortunate to have had her touch our lives.
David Pitts

       

Obituary from Jones Family Funeral Home

No Photo Loaded

LaDarla Keith

          Services for LaDarla Walker Keith, 78, of Bridgeport will be at 10:00 am Saturday, May 3, 2014 at Cornerstone Baptist Church in Decatur, officiated by Pastor Ron Fox. Visitation will be Friday from 6-8 pm at Jones Family Funeral Home in Bridgeport. Burial will be at East Bridgeport Cemetery. Pallbearers are Glenn Rhine, Sonny Tackel, Foy Mitchell, Robert Grantham, Dan Rhine, and Carl Russell. La Darla died Wednesday, April 30, 2014 in Decatur.
          She was born March 3, 1936 to Robert and Doris (Conner) Walker in Boonsville, Texas. She was an avid reader who enjoyed traveling worldwide, photography, crocheting, and was a self-labeled computer geek.
          LaDarla retired from Rodger Meier Cadillac in Dallas as Director of Warranty in 1998. After retirement she spent a lot of free time researching genealogy, and soon realized she had a gift for fact-finding. Before long she was assisting others who were searching out their family history as well. This process led her to search out cemetery and other family records, and before long she had a very full, part-time job.
          She, along with Sue Tackel, received numerous awards, including the TXGenWeb Project County of the Year award for 2010. She and Sue were affectionately known as the 'Cemetery Ladies.'
          She leaves behind daughters Mickie Gilmore, Karen Judd, Lisa Keith and Kimberley Yardley; brother Billy Fred Walker and wife Sandra; nine grandchildren; three great-grandchildren; nephews Monte St. John, Kevin St. John, Bo Walker and Clay Walker.
          She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband of 61 years Clarence 'Sonny' Keith; and sister Glenda St. John.