Meg Garland

Meg Garland of Waco, Texas passed away in peace and with family on June 28, 2021. She was a successful business woman, gifted artist, wife, mother and best friend to many. She will be deeply missed.

Graveside burial will be on July 1, 11a.m. at Salesville/Grantham Cemetery in Salesville, Texas. A memorial will be held at the Carleen Bright Arboretum in Woodway, Tx on August 4, 2021 from 3-5 p.m. to celebrate the life of this beautiful redhead who was sharp witted, intelligent, charming and always the bright spot of the party.  

Meg (Mary Elizabeth) Garland was born September 19, 1946 to Robert Neal and Mary Jewell (Saul) Garland  in Fort Worth, Texas. She lived on Tierney Road for most of her childhood and went to Eastern Hills High School, graduating with the class of 1964. Her favorite pastimes were spending time with her maternal grandmother, Etta Walker Saul, at what is now Walker-Garland Ranch in Palo Pinto County. She inherited her mother's beauty and her father's love of all things horses, especially appaloosa - breeding and raising numerous ribbon winners and showing at large shows across the State of Texas.

After graduation, she went to TCU for a week before coming to her senses and transferring to Texas Tech University. Meg graduated in 1968 with Honors with a Bachelors of Advertising Art and Design - an Engineering Degree.  She always took great pride in noting it was such a good degree it was BAAD.

Between 1969 and 1971, she was a Graphic Designer and a Creative Director with Storm Printing and Ratcliff Advertising, respectively. In 1972, while teaching Art at TSTC, she started Triad Associates, which she grew into one of the largest advertising agencies in Central Texas. She served on the Board of Directors with Kalyn from 1981-1994. Meg was the true definition of a serial entrepreneur starting several companies including: Gardeners Group, The Garland Group, Delightables and Walker-Garland Ranch. Also in 2005, she received her MBA from Baylor University in International Business. Meg has been listed as a noteworthy Advertising executive by Marquis Who’s Who, among other trade associations.

In the 1970s, Meg was a leader of Our Land Our Lives, an organization formed in response to a proposed Fort Hood expansion that threatened thousands of acres of private land. She testified in front of Congress and helped the landowners retain their property.  This experience sparked her future love of community service. 

She joined the Waco Founder Lions Club  and served in many officer roles including being the First Woman President of the “Oldest Continuously Running Lions Club in the World” in 1994. In 2002, she was honored with the Lion of the Year award. Her favorite posting with Lions was that of Tail Twister, and she enjoyed coming up with weekly ways to keep everyone on their toes - from razing fellow Lions about their college teams losing to staging fake weddings complete with an 80 year old male bride in a blue wedding dress. Through her involvement with Lions, she became passionate about the work of the Salvation Army - serving on the Board for many years and ringing bells up until the very last Christmas she could.

Meg has been a scholarship grantor at Texas Tech since 1988. She has also served on the Board of Directors for the American Cancer Society, Freeman Center, and the Advisory Boards for Charles Goodnight History Center and McLennan Community College. She was a member of the Woodway Arboretum from 1995-2004. Meg was a founding donor for The Women’s Museum in Dallas and The Carleen Bright Arboretum in Woodway. She was active in Leadership Texas, Leadership America, American Issues Forum, District Lions Cabinet, and Trustee for Texas Tech Parents Association.

If that wasn’t enough to keep her busy, she always organized her Eastern Hills High School reunions. In addition, she hosted her LALAs annually at her home for a fun, relaxing weekend with women from all over the country who had been involved with Leadership Texas or Leadership America and still remain friends.

Meg was preceded in death by her mother and father. She is survived by her husband, Lee Herring, her two daughters Blayn Smith of Dallas (husband Ron Smith) and Blayr Barnard of Crawford (husband Douglas Landrum). She is also survived by her grandchildren, Mitchell, Hannah, Zach, Conor, Axton, Zander, Abigail, Paige, and Claudia. Her family was largely made up of dear friends with far too many to list. She would want each of you listed here because she loved you as her blood.

In lieu of flowers, memorials can be made to the Meg Garland Memorial Fund at Waco Founder Lions Club (1716 N 42nd St, Waco, TX 76710) for a special project near and dear to Meg’s heart at Kiddieland Park.