Ellen Yates Tanner

Belton-- Memorial services for Ellen Yates Tanner, 82, of Temple, will be held 2:00 PM Monday, July 8, 2013, at First Baptist Church in Belton under the direction of Dossman Funeral Home with Andy Davis officiating. A private burial will take place in Waco prior to the service. Visitation for family and friends will be held Sunday, July 7, 2013, from 6PM to 8PM at Dossman Funeral Home in Belton. Ellen went to be with the Lord Thursday, July 4, 2013, at her home in Temple. She was born January 4, 1931, in Louisville, Kentucky, the daughter of Dr. Kyle Monroe Yates, Sr. and Margaret (Sharp) Yates. After graduating from high school in Houston, she attended Baylor University and graduated with a BA degree in 1952. She married her husband, Dr. William G. Tanner, Sr. on December 21, 1951, in Houston. After teaching first grade in the early years of her marriage, she devoted her time to her family and to supporting Bill as a pastor's wife in Houston, Cleburne, and Gulfport, Mississippi. She moved into the role of a college First Lady when Bill became president of Mary Hardin-Baylor College in 1968 and continued serving in that role at Oklahoma Baptist University from 1971 through 1976. When Bill's became executive director of the Home Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention and, later, of the Oklahoma Baptist Convention, she took on leadership roles with ministers' wives and the WMU. She was a member of the Executive Committee for the Southern Baptist Convention and chaired the Prayer Vigil for Ministers' Wives for the Southern Baptist Convention. She and Bill moved back to Central Texas in 2004 and became active members of the First Baptist Church of Belton, where she directed the Prayer Ministry until the time of her death. She is preceded in death by her parents; her husband, Dr. William G. Tanner, Sr.; one brother, Dr. Kyle Monroe Yates, Jr.; her son Mark Kyle Tanner; and her grandson Geoffrey Price Tanner. She is survived by two sons, Dr. William Tanner Jr. and wife, Dr. Paula Tanner of Belton, and Keith Tanner and wife Ginger of Frisco; one daughter, Kimberley Tanner Canova and husband Terry of Mobile, Alabama; one sister, Jean Wooddy; ten grandchildren, Mandi Foster, Kayde Higgins, Jason Tanner, Jessica Tanner, Carl Tanner, Scarlett Salter, Kaitlyn Tanner, Beau Tanner, Sophie Salter, and Hayden Salter; and three great grandchildren, Reed, Cale, and Zoe Higgins. In lieu of flowers, the family request donations be made to the Vasicek Cancer Treatment Center at Scott and White, www.sw.org