Page 20 - Amarillo Senior Link Magazine Winter 2020- Online Magazine

Exceptional
The Vision Becomes a Reality
Thanks to Local Heroes
J. Rex & Mary Nell Lemert
reated in 1992, the Texas
Panhandle War Memorial
Chonors veterans from the
26 counties in the Texas Panhandle
who gave their time and lives to
preserve our freedom. The idea of
a War Memorial is credited to Mr.
L. D. Weeks. Among the many
people in leadership positions over
the years deserving mention, past
Board President Fred Rangel certainly
deserves credit for promoting the
War Memorial. However, the driving
force behind taking the idea of a
War Memorial Education Center
and making it a reality has to be J.
Rex Lemert and his wife, Mary Nell
Lemert.
Rex is a certified public accountant
and senior partner of the accounting
firm, Lemert Holder and Ohm, in
Amarillo. He was a captain in the
Army and served in Vietnam as an
intelligence officer. Active with the
20 Amarillo Senior Link
SENIORS
by Perry Gilmore, PhD
Executive Director
Texas Panhandle War Memorial Center
War Memorial for many years, he design business aside to devote all
is the Board Treasurer and Capital her time to the War Memorial in
Campaign Co-Chair. He has served 2017. Rex negotiated a long-term
on the Texas Senate Academy lease on the War Memorial park
Selection Nomination Board, which property, on which a new museum
reviews student applications for the and education center could be built.
Military Service Academies. Rex set up a trust fund for donations
at the Amarillo Area Foundation.
Mary Nell Lemert is a graduate of Rex and Mary Nell organized county
the University of Texas at Austin and campaign Chairs throughout the
owner of Mary Nell Lemert Interior Panhandle and raised a couple of
Design. She put her successful interior million dollars to fund a new War
Memorial Museum and Education
Center. When Randall County
decided to move from their old
15,000 square foot Amarillo Annex
into a remodeled larger facility, Rex
negotiated a long-term lease on the
building.
The War Memorial Board changed
direction and delayed building a new
building, deciding to utilize the old
annex building. Mary Nell went to
work using her interior design skills