Laura Kotara Wollney

Laura Kotara Wollney went to be with the Lord on January 26, 2022. She was born on May 14, 1926, in Kosciusko, Texas, to Jerome and Annie Kotara. Laura was of proud Polish descent and was a member of The Polish-American Center. She was strong-willed in mind, body, and soul, and was the matriarch of her family.

She was a hardworking woman all her life. Laura worked in the cotton fields at a very young age. And then, as a young woman, she moved to San Antonio to live with her older sister Irene and worked at a small bakery. She then married Herman Wollney, whom she met when she lived in the country.

When their six children were older, Laura worked for HEB as a Master Decorator in the bakery department for 30 years. There, she excelled at cake decorating, making beautiful frosting flowers and Easter Bunny cakes, and earning numerous awards and accolades personally received from the executives at HEB, including from Howard Butt himself. Laura applied her creative side to making beautiful works of art through her cakes, one of which was a set of Christmas coconut cakes for former President Lyndon Baines Johnson, and countless wedding cakes. She was such a cherished HEB Bakery partner that, even after retirement in 1988, she would receive Christmas cards from Charles Butt and the former HEB Plant Manager through December of 2021.

Laura also enjoyed dancing to country-western music and spending time with family at various celebrations. Throughout her life, she was a devout Catholic and was a parishioner at St. Jerome’s Catholic Church. The greatest love of all for Laura was the one she had for her family. She was the most nurturing and loving mother and grandmother to her children, her nieces and nephews, and especially her grandchildren. Laura shared that love with her closest friends, and those who would meet her would become immediately charmed by her generosity and kindness.

Laura will be dearly missed by all. She is preceded in death by her late husband, Herman Wollney Sr.; children Fabian Max Wollney and Adrian Wollney; her parents, Jerome and Annie Kotara; siblings, Gervas Kotara, Irene Wollney and Emma Sczech; and four grandchildren Fabian Wollney Jr., Amanda Wollney, Timothy Wollney, and Joshua Crittenden.

Left to cherish her memory and share the fond tales of her long life are her children Mary Ann (Jesse) Amaro, Herman (Linda) Wollney Jr., Darlene (Jimmy) Tackitt, and Jimmy Wollney; siblings Aggie Laskowski, Benigna Pawelek, Don Kotara, and German Kotara; numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren; extended family and friends.