Obituary: Louise Herrington Ornelas
Louise Herrington Ornelas, major benefactor to the nursing school at Baylor University that bears her name, died Dec. 18 in Tyler. She was 93. She was born June 15, 1925, in Las Cruces, N.M., as the second of seven children to Bill and Minnie Herrington but grew up in East Texas. She dreamed of becoming a nurse, but family responsibilities kept her from realizing that ambition. Although she never became a practicing nurse, she volunteered as a Pink Lady for 30 years in Tyler hospitals. In fall 1999, she made a $13 million endowment gift to the Baylor School of Nursing, at the time the third-largest gift from an individual in the university’s history. In recognition of her long and generous support of the nursing program, the school was named the Louise Herrington School of Nursing. In April 2015, another lead gift by Ornelas made possible the purchase of the Baptist General Convention of Texas building in Dallas for use as the nursing school’s new academic home. Ornelas received multiple honors from Baylor University, including the 2015 Founder’s Medal, the Huckins Medallion and the Herbert H. Reynolds Exemplary Service Award. She was recognized as an Alumna Honoris Causa in 1992 and received an honorary Baylor nursing degree in 2000. Ornelas also supported nursing education at East Texas Baptist University in Marshall, which awarded her an Honorary Doctor of Humanities degree, and the University of Texas-Tyler. She received the Horatio Alger Award in 1996 and was named Volunteer of the Year in Tyler in 1989. She and her second husband, Robert M. Rogers, were co-founders of TCA Cable TV Inc. She was a member of Green Acres Baptist Church in Tyler for 55 years. She was preceded in death by brothers Al and Charles Herrington, sisters Jean Lancaster and Ellen Thurman, son Robby Rogers and her first husband, Martin Eugene Pettis. Ornelas is survived by her husband of 26 years, Joseph Z. Ornelas; sister Ann Kimrey of Tyler; brother Billy Creel Herrington and wife Peggy of Tyler; sons Rick Rogers and wife Mary Jane of Simsboro, La.; Randy Rogers and wife Brenda of Bryan; Russell Rogers and wife Esther of Springdale, Ark.; daughters Becky Wangner and husband Rob of Brentwood, Tenn., Sheryl Palmer of Tyler, Cindy Scott of Chandler, Rita Seldenrust and husband John, and Andrea Wegener and husband Dave; 20 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.
David D. Muñoz, longtime Texas Baptist pastor, died Nov. 28 in San Antonio after a battle with cancer. He was 76. Muñoz was born Oct. 28, 1942, in Tampico, Tamaulipas, México, to Mateo Tomas Muñoz and Rosa Esperanza Cortez de Muñoz. He received his theological training at Seminario Bautista de México. Muñoz was pastor of multiple churches throughout South and Central Texas, and he trained other ministers as a teacher and mentor through the Baptist Bible Institutes of Baptist University of the Américas. His passion for missions led him to travel internationally spreading the gospel. He and his wife Aurora established Pinn Oaks International Ministries to support three homes for vulnerable children in India and to equip Christians in South Asia for ministry. He was preceded in death by two sisters, Sara Muñoz de Almazan and Rosa Lila Muñoz de Vera. He is survived by his wife of 50 years, Aurora; daughter Sara Alegría Rangel and her husband Joe Rangel; daughter Hosanna Betel Muñoz-Kim and husband Joo-Young Kim; six grandchildren; brother Mateo Muñoz Cortez; and sisters Noemi Muñoz Cortez and Rebecca Ester Muñoz de Maldonado.
Rita Purdy of Woodway, professor emerita of family and consumer sciences at Baylor University, died Nov. 24. She was 77. She was born April 18, 1941, in Richlands, Va., to Nettie and Henry Sutherland of Clintwood, Va. She earned her undergraduate degree from Virginia Tech, where she met her husband of 54 years, Jim. She went on to receive her master’s degree from the University of Tennessee before returning to Virginia Tech to complete her doctorate. Purdy was a professor and served as dean of undergraduate programs for the College of Human Resources at Virginia Tech. In 1996, she joined the Baylor faculty as chair of family and consumer sciences. She loved to teach and earned numerous teaching excellence awards at both universities where she served. In 1999, she was named Texas leader of the year in Family and Consumer Sciences. Purdy was a member of Seventh and James Baptist Church, belonged to the Baylor Senior Adult Choir and worked with various other charities and civic organizations. She is survived by her husband, Jim; son Jay of Blacksburg, Va.; son David and daughter-in-law of Centreville, Va.; son Jonathan of Charlotte, N.C.; and two grandsons.
Robert G. Collmer of Waco, a missionary kid who became distinguished professor emeritus of English at Baylor University, died Nov. 21. He was 91. Collmer was born Nov. 28, 1926, in Guatemala City to G. Russell and Constance C. Collmer. At his birth, a physician warned his parents he never would be physically or mentally strong, but he grew to be a 6-foot-2-inch tall accomplished academician. He spent his early childhood in Zacapa, Guatemala, where his parents were Baptist missionaries, and for decades continued to visit and support the churches his parents established in central Guatemala. His family moved to Philadelphia when he was young before relocating to Laredo, where he graduated from Martin High School. In 1945, he was inducted into the U.S. Army while a student at Howard Payne College. After his discharge, he enrolled at Baylor University in 1947, where he met Linnie Maffett Burney. They married on her 21st birthday. They were married 31 years, before she died in 1979. In her memory, he gave the lead gift that led to establishing the Linnie B. Collmer Seminar Room at Baylor and set up an endowment for its furnishing. Collmer earned his undergraduate and master’s degrees from Baylor and his doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania. He served as professor, chair of the English department and director of graduate studies at Texas Tech University before joining the Baylor faculty in 1973. During his 24 years at Baylor, he served six years as head of the English department and 13 years as dean of the Baylor Graduate School. While he was dean, he continued to teach in the English department, where he met nurse and U.S. Army veteran Alys Edney, who he accompanied to a ballet in Dallas. They married in 1981. Collmer wrote hundreds of scholarly articles across many academic disciplines and edited multiple volumes. At Baylor, he helped establish the House of Poetry, the Beall Poetry Festival and the Beall-Russell Lecture Series. He taught a semester at the University of Jordan in Amman. Collmer, an ordained minister, taught a men’s Sunday school class at Columbus Avenue Baptist Church in Waco for many years. He is survived by his wife, Alys Edney Collmer; daughter Carol C. and husband, Donald W. McLaren, of Pinon, Ariz.; son Mark W. Collmer of Houston; and four grandchildren. His son established the 
Kurt Kaiser of Waco, Christian composer and pianist, died Nov. 12 after a lengthy illness. He was 83. Kaiser was born Dec. 17, 1934, in Chicago. He held degrees from the American Conservatory of Music and Northwestern University. He and his wife Pat and their family moved to Waco in 1959. They were longtime members of Seventh & James Baptist Church before they helped to start Dayspring Baptist Church in Waco. Kaiser was instrumental in the launch and growth of Word Music, where he was vice president and director of music. He composed more than 300 songs, including “Pass It On” and “Oh How He Loves You and Me.” He and Ralph Carmichael pioneered Christian youth musicals such as “Tell It Like It Is” and “Natural High” in the 1960s and 1970s. He was soloist George Beverly Shea’s accompanist at Billy Graham Evangelistic Association crusades. He received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers and was elected to the Gospel Music Hall of Fame. He was a longtime supporter of Baylor University, which all four of his children attended, and the university awarded him its Pro Ecclesia Medal of Service in 2017. He is survived by his wife Pat; four children and their spouses, Kris Kaiser Olson and Charles Olson of Waco, Kelli and Kent Kaiser of Sugar Land, Janet and Craig Kaiser of Houston, and Gail and Tim Kaiser of Coppell; 10 grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; one sister, Sigrid Schultz; and three brothers, Helmuth Kaiser, Martin Kaiser and Gerhard Kaiser.
R.L. Herring of San Antonio, retired Texas Baptist pastor, military chaplain and administrator for Buckner Baptist Retirement Village, died Aug. 25. He was 97. Herring was born Aug. 18, 1921, in rural Mississippi to Robert Lee Herring and Carrie Carr Herring. His family moved to Southeast Texas when he was young, and he graduated from Port Neches High School. At Clark College in Newton, Miss., he earned an associate’s degree and met his future wife, Mary Underwood. After they married, the Herrings moved to Texas. He earned an undergraduate degree from Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene and a master’s degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth. Herring, who was ordained in 1940, served six churches as a student pastor. In 1949, he became the first pastor at Calvary Baptist Church in Bryan. He later served at Fredonia Hill Baptist Church in Nacogdoches and Lakewood Baptist Church in Dallas. In 1965, he began 20 years of service as administrator for Buckner Baptist Retirement Village in Dallas. He served from 1950 to 1979 as a chaplain in the National Guard. He was state chaplain at the National Guard headquarters in Austin and was involved in building All Faiths Chapel at Camp Mabry in Austin. He received the Minute Man Award from the National Guard Association of Texas in 1996. His denominational service included time as a trustee at Wayland Baptist University and as an emeritus member of the executive board of Hardin-Simmons University, where he was named a distinguished alumnus in 2006. He was a charter member of Woodland Baptist Church in San Antonio and later was an active member of First Baptist Church in San Antonio. Herring was preceded in death by his wife of 72 years, Mary, and his sister, Dorothy Mildred Bates. He is survived by his daughter, Cindy Ann Muir, and her husband Donald of San Antonio, and one granddaughter.
J.B. Fowler, retired Texas Baptist pastor and New Mexico Baptist newspaper editor, died Aug. 21 in San Antonio. He was 88. Fowler was born July 8, 1930, in Pawhuska, Okla., to J.B. and Ona Thurman Fowler. He began preaching at age 17. He earned an undergraduate degree from Howard Payne University and a Master of Divinity degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He also received an honorary doctorate from Howard Payne University. He was pastor of churches in Van, Moran, Ballinger, Kendalia and Lubbock, as well as in McComb, Miss. He served 13 years as editor of the Baptist New Mexican and was named editor emeritus when he retired. His denominational service included terms as president of the Southern Baptist Press Association, a director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Board, and a trustee of Howard Payne University, William Carey College and Hendrick Memorial Hospital. He was preceded in death by his wife of 65 years, Wanda Lee Orrick Fowler. He is survived by sons Bruce of San Antonio and David of New York City; one grandson, one great-granddaughter and a sister, Betty Smith of Arlington.
Betty Louise Doyen Dilday, former first lady of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, died Aug. 9 of complications from pulmonary fibrosis. She was 87. She was born April 8, 1931 in Houston to Jewel and Lavergne Doyen. She accepted Christ as her Savior at age 9 and was baptized at First Baptist Church in Houston. She received her undergraduate degree in English from Baylor University, where she met her future husband, Russell, in Bible class their junior year. They married Aug. 15, 1952. Later, she did graduate study at Georgia State University and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, as well as the B.H. Carroll Theological Institute, where she earned a Master of Arts in Religion degree. She taught school in Fort Worth when her husband was in seminary and in Georgia when he was pastor of Second-Ponce de Leon Baptist Church in Atlanta. She served all her adult life as a Bible teacher, graded choir assistant, and missions leader. She served alongside her husband 17 years in Texas and Georgia as a pastor’s wife, for 16 years when he was president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and for one year when he was interim president of Howard Payne University. In Atlanta and Dallas, she developed a ministry by encouraging women to serve as volunteers to take smaller arrangements from the large altar flower arrangement to hospitals and shut-ins. In 2011, she was named Woman of Distinction by the Baylor Dallas Women’s Council, and in 2017, the Baylor Line Foundation awarded the R.H. Dilday family the title Baylor’s First Family. She and her husband traveled extensively to six continents visiting missionaries and encouraging Baptist work there. She is survived by her husband of 66 years, Russell; their son Robert and their daughters, Nancy Duck and Ellen Garrett; nine grandchildren and two great-children.
John Bisagno, longtime pastor of First Baptist Church in Houston, died Aug. 5 in Nashville, Tenn., after a battle with cancer. He was 84. Bisagno was born April 5, 1934, in Augusta, Kan. He earned a bachelor’s degree in music at Oklahoma Baptist University and received multiple honorary doctorates. Following an early career as a Dixieland jazz trumpeter, Bisagno gave his life to Christ in 1952 and accepted a call to ministry. He served as an evangelist—primarily in music evangelism—before he became pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Del City, Okla., in 1965. He began his 30-year pastorate of First Baptist Church in Houston in 1970. During his time there, the church grew from fewer than 400 members to more than 22,000, baptized about 15,000 people, gave $250 million to missions and relocated from downtown to west Houston. While he was pastor at the Houston church, about 500 members entered full-time Christian vocations, including 100 international missionaries. Bisagno was president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Pastors’ Conference and a frequent preacher at state Baptist evangelism conferences. He spoke at the World Congress on Evangelism and conducted 37 overseas evangelistic crusades. He was preceded in death last year by his wife of 63 years, Uldine. He is survived by two sons—Tim of Franklin, Tenn., and Tony of Tyler—and daughter Ginger Dodd of Freemont, Neb., eight grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.
James W. Culp of Royse City, a pioneering leader of African-American work within the Baptist General Convention of Texas, died July 22. He was 86. Culp was born June 3, 1932, in Pineville, N.C., to Richard Sylvester Culp and Mary Edna Short Culp. Culp served in the U.S. Air Force, attaining the rank of technical sergeant and receiving the distinguished Bronze Star for his service during the Vietnam War. He was founding pastor of Second Chapel Baptist Church in Garland and the longtime coordinator of black church development for the BGCT. The African-American Fellowship of Texas named its annual banquet in his honor. Culp also was the first African-American to serve on the Garland City Council. He was preceded in death by his wife of 62 years, Mary Lou Culp in 2015, and by siblings Richard Culp, Emma Washington, David Culp, Carrie Broome, George Culp, Fred Culp, Israel Culp and Monroe Culp. He is survived by his children, Terryl Bratek, Rae Culp, Mariann Douglas, James W. Culp, Jr., Deidra Culp, Michelle Culp and John Culp; 16 grandchildren; 13 great-grandchildren; a brother, John J. Culp; and sister, Edna Culp Washington.
Michael Joseph Estep, senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Marlin, died July 21 after a battle with cancer. He was 65. Estep was born July 4, 1953, in Wichita, Kan., to Phyllis Jean and Phillip Joseph Estep. He married Kathryn Louise Gassett in Honolulu, Hawaii, Sept. 21, 1974. She preceded him in death Sept. 28, 2016. He married Letitia Parrott in Athens Nov. 20, 2017. Estep joined the U.S. Navy in 1972. He was a Vietnam veteran and served on numerous ships in the Persian Gulf, Mediterranean Sea and South Pacific. He retired as a chief petty officer after more than 21 years, having earned numerous citations, ribbons, medals and badges. He was a teacher at the Juvenile Correctional Facility in Mart. He served as post commander for the American Legion Post 31 in Marlin and was chaplain of the American Legion Riders. He was an accomplished artist in oils, pencil and charcoal, and he was a motorcycle enthusiast. He is survived by his wife of eight months, Letitia, and her four daughters and three grandchildren; his children, Terri and Lee Michael Estep, Cora Day and Mario Padilla; four grandchildren; his mother, Phyllis Chapman; and three sisters, Linda Briscoe, Cindy Clinefelter and Cheryl Estep.