Naida Prause Langan Yarbrough, 88, of Waco passed away January 31, 2013 at a local nursing home. Funeral services will be at 2 p.m. on Monday, February 4, 2013 at the Bellmead Funeral Home Chapel with Rev. Terry Wilkerson officiating. Visitation will be at the Bellmead Funeral Home on Sunday, February 3, 2013 from 6 to 8 p.m. Burial will be at China Spring Cemetery.
Naida was born July 5, 1924 on a near-2000 acre ranch near Valley Mills in Bosque County. She spent her childhood heading cattle and sheep for her father and mother. Old timers called her the best cowgirl riding cutting horses that they had ever seen.
She attended China Spring Schools and graduated from Waco High School in 1941. Then she graduated from Four-C College in Waco and was attending Baylor University during which time World War II broke out. She completed a course in Army Rifle training in the Waco Business Girls Corps during this time. She had loved flying from the age of ten and at sixteen began her training at Richfield Airport under instructions of the late Davis Speight. During WWII she was affiliated with the U.S. Army Air Corps being stationed in West Texas and New Mexico.
Later, she married 1st Lt. John P. Langan of Rochester, N.Y. and to this union was born two daughters, Patricia Rose and Vera Catherine. While living in New York, she completed two more years at State Universities of New York in Plattsburg and Geneva. After 8 years, she returned to Texas completing 37 years of employment with 3 years at General Tire & Rubber and Texas Department of Transportation with 24 years as an Engineering Technician.
In 1957, she married James Rex Yarbrough of Waco and they had a son, Rodney Earle Yarbrough in 1959. She and Rex loved flying and traveling and were fortunate enough to have traveled most of the better known countries of the world plus the United States, Mexico and Canada.
Naida was known as a very caring person and loved people. She always had a smile or hug for everyone she met. She was preceded in death by her first husband, John P. Langan and her second husband Rex of 47 years; her parents, J.L. "Dutch" Prause and Vera Bryant Prause; daughter, Vera Catherine Langan Hazelwood; sister, Mavis Reible; and brothers, Dallas, Danny and Sammy Prause.
She is survived by her daughter Patricia Langan Aldridge of College Station; son, Rodney E. Yarbrough of Waco; sisters, Vera Alvena Trull Pocock, Gloria Helleson and husband Jimmie; brothers, David and wife Barbara Jean Prause, James Prause and wife Nelda; as well as four grandchildren and 5 great-grandchildren.
Pallbearers will be her nephews, David Prause, Charles Prause, Mike Prause, Russell Prause, Terry Trull, and Stephen Pocock. Honarary pallbearers are Ed Jackson and Mark Rose.
Please sign the online guest book at www.bellmeadfuneralhome.com