Gayla Schwarting Jansen

The Long Goodbye: She’s Running a Little Late

Gayla Jansen Klingle | January 27, 1945 – February 23, 2026

If you’re reading this and wondering why the service hasn’t started yet, don’t worry, Gayla is just staying true to herself. She always ended up serving Thanksgiving dinner at 10:00 PM, so it’s only fitting she’d be fashionably late to her own farewell.

Gayla spent most of her life describing herself as "slow." She was slow to finish a bid for a client, slow to finish her taxes, and always the last one to finish a meal. Her family would often have to pause a story mid-sentence to admonish her take to take a bite because she would be frozen, mouth open, with her fork in mid-air listening with such interest that she would forget to put the food in her mouth. Quick to listen, slow to everything else.

Born while her parents had a brief stint in Annapolis, Maryland at the end of World War II, Gayla was the daughter of Eleanor and Joseph F. Schwarting. She grew up in the artistic, athletic glow of her father, a legendary Captain of the Texas Longhorns. Gayla inherited his creative soul and his obsession with football.

As a young girl, she lived in a version of Houston we can’t even imagine, when Bellaire was as far west as anyone could reasonably live. She told stories about riding a pony from her family house on Jacquet across what is now the 610 loop and into Memorial Park.

Gayla defied expectations and was full of surprises. She never wore a dress to school and when the powers that be made her conform, she secretly wore jeans underneath. In 1957, a reluctant 12-year-old Gayla was dragged to see a nobody named Elvis Presley. When Elvis took the stage, she was shocked by her reaction, immediately jumping to her feet and screaming at the top of her lungs for the entire concert. In the early 60s, she became a "Tenneco Girl," looking like a high-fashion supermodel straight off the set of Mad Men. Though she was world-class at the aesthetic, she painfully slow with a typewriter.

It was at Tenneco that she met the love of her life, Ralph Jansen, a country boy who broke horses and wrangled alligators for fun. In a move that shocked those around her, the sweet city girl who hated the sun and loved paved roads, recalled her pony riding memories and went full Green Acres, moving to the country to raise kids among horses, cattle, chickens, snakes and her beloved pet goat, Aurora, who she led by leash in a holiday parade in Magnolia, TX.

Gayla was a woman of beautiful contradictions. A professional interior designer who made everyone’s dream home beautiful, she maintained the messiest house on the block, a testament to a life focused on people rather than piles. Raised as a casual Catholic girl, she became a born-again Christian in her early 20s. Her devout faith became central to the rest of her life, hosting Good News Club for the neighborhood kids on Goldfinch, her 40+ year commitment to the work of Community Bible Study, and loading her minivan full of her sons’ friends to learn the bible at Awana with bellies full of homemade Wednesday night burgers. Her friends and family admired her knowledge and recall of scripture. God’s word overflowed out of her at every moment, and she always knew how to apply her study to real life in every situation good or bad. This was not casual, it defined her.

Many will remember Gayla with a huge video camera on her shoulder.

Gayla videoed every local sporting event, church concert, award ceremony and wedding (even if it took her years to deliver the edited version). She took it upon herself to capture memories for others even as her own memories began to fade. She fell in love with football watching her sons play through the viewfinder of her camera. She often commented that she loved capturing moments on camera because she could do it in real time, at the same speed as anyone else.

Gayla never drank alcohol, only cussed once that we know of, always had a tissue in her hand to dab the happy tears of her sensitive heart. Those closest to her can attest that her kindness and sweet spirit knew no bounds. That is unless you tried to throw away any of her "precious stuff." If you threatened to get rid of a rusted knife or a scrap of paper she’d saved, the Longhorn’s daughter came out to defend her hoard with righteous anger.

After navigating the tragic loss of Ralph in 1997 and her beloved daughter, Janica in 2015, she found love again with Donald "Doc" Klingle, a woodworker and banjo player who treated her with tender kindness until his recent passing on October 25, 2025.

Gayla and Doc spent their final years in the beautiful home her son Jared built, watching Elvis videos on YouTube, Murder She Wrote reruns, Astros and Texans games while trying to hold on to whatever memories remained as she began to battle Alzheimer’s. A short time ago, the family moved her into a specialized memory facility called Barton House, where she received immense love and warmth from an amazing group of caregivers. Gayla continued to find Christlike joy and happiness through it all and her perfect smile came out all the way until her last few days on earth. True to form, she was wildly slow to the end, hanging on to life far longer than anyone expected. Her nurses remarked that they had never seen someone take so long. Classic, sweet Gayla, taking her time and defying expectations even in death.

Gayla is reunited in heaven with her husbands, Ralph and Doc; her daughter, Janica Jansen Kohler; her parents; and her brother, Joe (Sandy) Schwarting.

Her legacy and memory is carried on by her sons, Jared Jansen, Jeremy Jansen and his wife Candice (Oliver), her grandchildren, Chris Kohler, Oliver Jansen, Grace Jansen, Otto Jansen and August Jansen, her brothers, Schuyler and Wright Schwarting, her sister, Bonnie Schwarting, her sister in-law Mary Kaye Finley and many other family members.

We love you, mom. We’ll see you when we get there, we know you’ll be waiting on us for once.