Deborah Anne Wright, her dedication to family and faithfulness are words which hardly begin to describe Debi. Debi was born July 24th, 1952 in Mobile, Alabama to Dorienne Anne and Jimmie Lee Simmons. She passed away fully loved on Sunday February 23rd, 2020 at the age of 67 in Austin, Texas. Debi believed that every day was a gift.
Debi was a dedicated mother, she placed her family’s needs and desires before her own, every day of her life. She was faithful and a survivor. She received a heart transplant over 22 years ago and thrived in spite of the daily regimen of medications and therapies she endured. On May 6th, 1972, she married Carl (Rip) Tom Wright III, at Saint John’s Presbyterian Church in Austin, Texas. In 1976, she graduated from the University of Nebraska, Omaha with a BS in interior design. Following her graduation and early motherhood, she worked as a volunteer at Buda Elementary School and moved up in grades in tandem with her kids. The schools saw her devotion to the students; so they hired her onto the staff of Barton Middle School as a Teacher’s Aide in the Content Mastery classroom. She loved to teach and filled her summers sharing her faith while Directing and teaching Vacation Bible School, at Southwest Christian Church, Austin, Texas. Debi’s true love and focus was her family. Her daughters, grandchildren and her husband occupied her every moment. Family vacations consisted of weekend trips to local (and sometimes not so local) softball tournaments. While Debi did not give birth to a son; the men that played softball with and for Rip became her “sons”. Debi was a dedicated supporter of Texas A&M University, adopting everything Aggie; while she didn’t personally attend the school; the family legacy within the Aggie Network was started with her brothers and continued with her daughters, nieces, and nephews. She enthusiastically followed Aggie sports and spent most days listening to the Aggie Band and Signing Cadets on YouTube, with tears streaming down her cheeks.
She was preceded in death by her parents Dorienne and Jimmie Simmons.
