Carol Wallace Lemmons McSwain, devoted daughter, wife, and beloved mother and grandmother, went to be with our Lord on January 1, 2026, in Brownwood, Texas at the age of 89. A celebration of life service will be held on Saturday, January 17th, 2026, at 12:30 pm at the Austin Avenue Church of Christ in Brownwood, Texas. Interment will follow immediately after at the Jenkins Springs Cemetery in Early, Texas.
Carol Wallace Lemmons was born to Chalmers Carl and Dorothy Highley Wallace in Webb City, Missouri on February 28, 1936. As a young girl, she learned the values of Christian faith, hard work, patience, and endurance from her father’s Oklahoma farming family, who raised her and her sister while her father fought in World War II. He returned from war and moved the family to Louisiana, where Carol graduated from high school. She was enrolled in Abilene Christian College in 1954 and there she met her future husband, Joe A. Lemmons of Brownwood, Texas. They married on December 18th, 1955, and began a life of adventure, starting a fertilizer business in Mexia, Texas followed by a move to Sousse Tunisia, where Joe helped found an agricultural college to train Tunisian farmers. Carol always made a loving and welcoming home for her husband and five children wherever they lived.
In 1968 they returned to Brownwood, Texas and established what would become their lifelong residence and work. Together as co-founders and partners, Carol and Joe started a pump manufacturing company, Gator Pump Inc. Joe died in 1992 after a lengthy illness, and in 2008, Carol remarried a very good man, Arlan B. McSwain of Bryan, Texas. They enjoyed an exciting 10 years of travel and companionship until Arlan’s death in 2018. For over 45 years, Carol remained active as Chairman of the Board of Directors and principal owner of Gator Pump, and she continued working until declining health kept her from her duties.
She was a kind friend to all, good neighbor, a Bible school teacher and lifelong member of the Church of Christ at Austin Avenue. She was a gentle and loving mother, aunt, grandmother, and great-grandmother. She was preceded in death by her parents Chalmers and Demma Wallace, her husbands Joe Lemmons and Arlan McSwain, sister Sharon Clevinger and brother Carl Wallace. She is survived by her sister, June Fisher of Marietta Ohio and by children Jeff Lemmons (Judy), Brenda Adams (Gene), Dale Lemmons, Susan Baugh and Mark Baugh, and Phillip Lemmons, along with 10 grandchildren and 14 greatgrandchildren.
The family has requested donations in lieu of flowers be made in her name to the Cherokee Home for Children in Cherokee, Texas https://www.chc4kids.org
Funeral arrangements are being made through the Heartland Funeral Home of Early, Texas.
