Lisa K. Shepard

Lisa Louise Kelsey Shepard, 66, a dedicated and determined soul, peacefully made her transition to glorious Heaven, Thursday July 11th, 2024, at 7:06 pm with her devoted family by her side.

Lisa was an athlete, mother, wife, sister and friend to all she cared for, including the hundreds of souls and their families she touched and tenderly cared for as a beloved and respected mortician and funeral director, bereavement counselor and group leader as well as social worker and later a dedicated registered nurse.

Lisa is survived by her devoted, adoring husband of 21 years, Joseph Edward Shepard, a high school educator and coach of 30+ years; her loving 26-year-old daughter Kristina Kelsey Wahl; four older sisters, Monnalee Bess, Diane Parker, Leslie Kozubik, Lynne Dawson, and younger brother Jay Kelsey; as well as her loyal friend, Bandit, her Boston Terrier.

She was preceded in death by her parents, her father and all-around hero, James Edward Kelsey and mother, Clara Louise Kratz Kelsey.

Lisa was a fierce champion of health adversity, beating three different stage 3 aggressive cancers throughout her life: Hodgkin’s Lymphoma at 23, that spread to her lungs, Breast cancer because of her previous radiation in her early 40s, and extensive Intestinal and Pancreatic Cancer in 2017-18, destroying every cell of it. In true Lisa fashion, she survived, never relapsing again. Lisa spent the last 11 years of her life conquering the relentless abuse of chronic congestive heart failure until her transition to Heaven.

Lisa’s athletic interests resulted in; a national champion competitive swimmer from early childhood as a member of the North Shore Swim Team, which was led by her father in Ingleside TX, to her time at the University of Texas at Austin where she was one of the first women to receive a full athletic scholarship. Prior to her university days one of her proudest achievements was competing at 18 years old in the 1976 Olympic trials in Long Beach, CA, missing the swimming team by one 100th of a second. Following her UT years, Lisa decided to set her eyes on an even more prestigious and challenging goal, swimming across the English Channel, the body of rough water separating France and England. After a year of training in the cold waters of Barton Springs, Texas and Dover, England, Lisa successfully swam from Cap Gris-Nez, France to the beautiful white cliffs of Dover, England on August 10th, 1981, in 15 hours and 22 minutes, swimming the last third with only one arm after an injury, and getting blown 24 miles off-course by a strong storm. Her success was even more remarkable as it was at the beginning of her battle with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Her powerful drive in swimming earned her strength for her spiritual and physical heart, allowing her to not only be a champion but to valiantly survive extensive aortic stenosis, open heart surgery and Congestive heart failure.

Swimming truly brought her courage and confidence, but also a family, beautiful lifelong friends, and memories.

Lisa’s career was as diverse as it was impactful. Her passion for helping others further transitioned into a role as a mortician and funeral director. At the age of 50, while raising her 10-year-old daughter, Lisa went back to school at San Antonio College, becoming a registered nurse, eventually serving as a med/surg and cardiac nurse at Christus Santa Rosa Hospital-New Braunfels. A well-rounded lifelong student, in addition to degrees from San Antonio College for mortuary science and nursing, Lisa also held a bachelor’s degree in advertising from the University of Texas at Austin, and master’s in social work from the University of Washington in Seattle, WA.

She loved every part of each of her careers, even the painful parts. Lisa embraced pain with passion, starting at a young age determinedly pushing herself past physical and mental limits while growing up in the pool and throughout her life constantly being in the thick of grief and
suffering at work and with her and her daughter’s health. Lisa learned to translate pain into love and hope for the sick and grieving along with being a beacon of hope, joy and teacher of strength to her adoring family.

Lisa was a member of Freedom Fellowship Church, where she found much comfort and renewed enthusiasm for life when she along with daughter Kristina were baptized together in 2016, accepting with joy the outstretched hand of their loving savior Jesus Christ. She loved gardening, backyard birding, and writing poetry, each allowing her to reflect on her deep appreciation for life and nature, but through and through her heart and body always felt safer and more alive in the water, whatever body of it she could dive into, especially cherishing the feeling of the sun shining on her as she swam.

Visitation will be held on Friday, July 19th from 8:30-10:00 AM at Lux Funeral Home in New Braunfels, TX, with funeral procession directly following visitation to Hill Country Memorial Gardens Cemetery with a graveside service at 10:30 AM. A reception is to follow, details provided graveside. A celebration of life will be organized near Lisa’s birthday in October. On behalf of Lisa and her family, thank you to all doctors, nurses, therapists, teachers and mentors, coworkers, and friends who kept her alive again and again like the energizer bunny she was and all who made Lisa’s almost 67-year earthly journey truly spectacular.

In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made to the American Heart Association to support research into Congestive Heart Failure and/or The Texas Children’s Hospital Jeffrey Modell Diagnostic and Research Center and William T. Shearer Center for Human Immunobiology which is dedicated to researching and developing novel therapies for Inborn Errors of Immunity like her daughter’s congenital primary immunodeficiency syndrome. Please make all donations contributed in memory of Lisa, who supported both foundations with great gratitude. Lux Funeral Home in New Braunfels are assisting the family during this time.
To Donate go to:
● American Heart Association select Donate in Memory (on website)
● Texas Children’s Hospital website for Donation, in dropdown select other and enter:
Jeffrey Modell Diagnostic and Research Center