Clare La Vonne Walker

Clare La Vonne Walker

LivingConfirmed

Kristin's mother · known as LaVonne Danielson

Born

4 May 1947, Fort Worth, Tarrant County, Texas

Parents

Clarence Melvin "Melvin" Walker & Dorothy La Vonne Peters

Children

Bradley Neal Caffey, Kristin

Sources

8

Images

15

Life in the order the records give it

Birth1947

Born 4 May 1947, Fort Worth, Tarrant County, Texas S39. Walker is her maiden name, not a married surname S24.

Why this card now carries dates. On 21 September 2026 Earl set the rule this page runs on today: living adults are published in full, and only minors are held back — named, and nothing else. She is a living adult, so her record is given like anyone else's, each line cited. What this card said before: until 13 September 2026 her living status was unrecorded and her half of Pedigree Chart II was four empty boxes; on 17 September the family named the second marriage but supplied no date, place or husband's name, and none was published. Records have now supplied all three.

Her second husband was the University of Texas dean. Wayne Allen Danielson (b. 6 December 1929, Burlington, Iowa; d. 31 October 2017, aged 87) was professor of journalism and the second dean of the UT College (then School) of Communication, 1969–1979, now the Moody College; earlier dean of the School of Journalism at the University of North Carolina S297. Earl confirmed on 23 September 2026 that he is the same man S24, and his obituary settles it independently: it says he "courted and married LaVonne Walker Caffey", is survived by "his wife LaVonne," and lists as stepchildren "Brad (Erin) Caffey and Kristin (Earl) Proeger both of Austin" S297.

Family parents, marriages, children, siblings

Names1969

Two names, two marriages — and they are not an index variant. She married Thomas Alan Caffey on 7 June 1969 at Tarrant County S127; that marriage was dissolved 3 October 1980 in Travis County S128, when Kristin was five. She married Wayne Allen Danielson on 10 July 1993, Travis County S129, and was widowed on 31 October 2017 S297. Every Danielson record postdates July 1993 and every Caffey or Walker record precedes it — which is what settles it. Danielson — the name on the photographs below — is her present surname, carried from that second marriage. The heading and the captions are the same woman.

Parents—

"Clare" and "La Vonne" are both hers, and the middle name is the one the family uses. Her mother was Dorothy La Vonne Peters, who passed that middle name down S39

which is why Texas indexes file her under a first name nobody calls her. That finding stands independently of the remarriage above; both are true at once S129.

Parents—

Her parents were Clarence Melvin "Melvin" Walker and Dorothy La Vonne Peters. Both are deceased and both appear in full below S36S39

Children—

Her children are Bradley Neal Caffey and Kristin, both by Thomas Alan Caffey and both named as such by the state birth index S126

Parents2022

Her mother's 2022 obituary names her among the surviving daughters as "LaVonne Danielson of Austin, TX" S36

the published family record using the same two names this card does.

Photos & documents 15 photos · 0 documents

Photos (15)

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In the record Generation 2 — Kristin's parents

1. S24Family testimony — Earl Proeger, September 2026. Stated directly by the family and recorded on their word. Covers: the Silva maiden name and William Harry Proeger as his father's father (both of which record research had already reached independently); and, on Kristin's side, her father Thomas Caffey — raised in Austin, University of Texas, died at Austin — and her mother Lavonne Walker, Walker being her maiden name, born at Fort Worth, Tarrant County. Not a document. No record has been retrieved for any of the Caffey or Walker statements, no dates were supplied for either person, and none has been estimated. Carried throughout as Family testimony, never as Confirmed. Superseded in part on 13 September 2026: the Thomas Caffey statements are now carried on records instead — see S31–S35. The Lavonne Walker statements still rest on this source alone. Extended 17 September 2026: the family further states that she was born Walker, married a Caffey and divorced, then married a Danielson who has since died — which is why her photographs are captioned Danielson. It matches the Caffey obituary's "former wife, LaVonne Danielson" [S31] independently. Her present surname and her widowhood rest on this testimony alone; the second husband's given name, and every date and place attached to that marriage, were not supplied and are not published. Extended 22 September 2026 (eyewitness): Earl was present at the birth of his half-brother John Jacob “Jacob” Proeger, born 25 May 1994 on the island of Guam to William Leonard Proeger and Briana Castro Proeger; Earl states the birth was one month before his own wedding ceremony with Kristin, which was also held on Guam (the marriage itself was registered in Travis County; see the next entry). No birth record has been retrieved. Extended 22 September 2026 (Earl’s own account of his marriage): “Kristin and I married on Guam in a ceremony but registered our marriage in Travis County when we visited Austin, as that had been our home for many years, and we could marry without swearing, a scruple we held as Quakers and which Guam had no accommodation for.” The only date held is the Travis County registration, 25 June 1994, from the Texas Marriage Index [S2]; the date of the Guam ceremony was not supplied and is not published.
2. S36Obituary of Dorothy LaVonne Peters Walker (12 February 1926 – 13 August 2022), Greenwood Funeral Home, Fort Worth — greenwoodfuneralhomes.com; the same text transcribed on FindAGrave memorial 242876604, Mount Olivet Cemetery, Fort Worth. Family-written. It names her husband "Melvin Walker," her parents "Benjamin 'Pete' and Selma Peters," her three daughters, her Chicago birth and Sioux Falls upbringing, the Norway trips, and — decisively — "Kristin (Earl) Proeger of Austin, TX" among her grandchildren. ⚠️ Only the funeral home's own copy carries the "ROUND ROCK" dateline; the FindAGrave transcription drops it. The funeral home's page is published in full in the Documents grid (Earl's per-item exception, 25 Sep 2026).
3. S39Texas Birth Index 1903–1997 and the 1950 US Census, Tarrant County, via FamilySearch in a signed-in session. "Clare La Vonne Walker — Birth [date withheld], Tarrant, Texas — Parents Clarence Melvin Walker, Dorothy La Vonne Peters," with her sisters Marilyn Dorothy and Carolyn Jane indexed to the same couple; and the 1950 census household at White Settlement, Tarrant County. The state vital record that supplies Dorothy's maiden name, independently of any obituary. ⚠️ All three daughters are living, so the birth dates on these index rows are redacted here — the citation is reproduced as it was read, minus the dates the privacy rule withholds.
4. S126Bradley Neal Caffey — Texas birth index, 23 February 1972, Travis County. Texas, U.S., Birth Index, 1903–1997, Ancestry collection 8781, record 11286050, index image TXBTH_1972_000216a. Read 21 September 2026. Father Thomas Alan Caffey; mother Clare LaVonne Walker. The record that makes him Kristin's full brother rather than a surname match. A state birth index naming both parents, and they are the same two parents the same index gives for Kristin in 1975 (image TXBTH_1975_000216e). Corroborated independently by the 2022 Walker obituary [S36], which lists Brad and Kristin in one sentence as grandchildren of the same woman. ⚠ No evidence of a third child. Across the whole Caffey hint cluster and the full obituary, only these two appear as children of this couple — that is absence of evidence from two sources that each had reason to name everyone, and is graded Probable, not Confirmed.
5. S127Thomas Alan Caffey and Clare LaVonne Walker — marriage, 7 June 1969, Tarrant County, Texas. Texas, U.S., Marriage Index, 1824–2014, Ancestry collection 8795, record 3165434. Read 21 September 2026; the same date is carried forward on the 1980 divorce record [S128]. ⚠ One conflict, resolved against the newspaper. The Newspapers.com Marriage Index (record 102623378) dates this marriage 14 June 1969. That collection is machine-extracted — Ancestry's own header states it was "found using artificial intelligence technology and may contain errors" — and it is one derived index against two state indexes that agree on 7 June. This page takes 7 June 1969. The likeliest explanation is mundane: the newspaper item ran the week after the ceremony and the extractor took the publication date for the event date.
6. S128Caffey–Walker divorce, 3 October 1980, Travis County, Texas. Texas, U.S., Divorce Index, 1968–2017, Ancestry collection 8794, record 1980076447. Read 21 September 2026. A state record. It fixes to the day what this page previously carried as the bare year 1980 [S33]. Clare LaVonne Walker is living, and this page publishes living adults in full under Earl's rule of 21 September 2026. A divorce is the kind of fact a living person might not want published, so it is recorded here that this one is on the page deliberately and with his authority, not by oversight. The state file number is not published.
7. S129Clare LaVonne Walker and Wayne Allen Danielson — marriage, 10 July 1993, Travis County, Texas. Texas, U.S., Select County Marriage Records, 1837–2015, Ancestry collection 9168, record 130766248. Read 21 September 2026. Corroborated by the U.S. Index to Public Records (collection 62209, record 235937201), which files her as "Lavonne W Danielson" at Austin and Fredericksburg from 1993 onward, and by U.S. Phone and Address Directories (collection 7339, record 296670805), "Lavonne Danielson," spouse "Wayne," Austin, 1996–2002. This is what settles the two-names question, and the answer is a remarriage, not an index variant. Every Danielson record postdates July 1993; every Caffey and Walker record precedes it. There is no third reading of her name to reconcile — there are two marriages. It is a separate matter from, and does not disturb, the middle-name finding: her mother Dorothy La Vonne Peters passed that middle name to her, which is why Texas indexes file her under the first name Clare that the family does not use. Both things are true at once. Wayne Allen Danielson is the University of Texas dean — second dean of the College of Communication, 1969–1979. Identified 23 September 2026 by Earl Proeger [S24] and by the dean's own obituary, which names his wife LaVonne and his stepchildren Brad Caffey and Kristin Proeger [S297].
8. S297Wayne Allen Danielson, Ph.D. — obituary, Austin American-Statesman, 5 November 2017 (Legacy.com, Weed Corley Fish Funeral Homes, Austin). Read and captured 23 September 2026. States: born 6 December 1929, Burlington, Iowa, to Bessie and Arthur Leroy Danielson; B.A. Journalism, University of Iowa, 1952; M.A. 1953 and Ph.D. 1957, Stanford; dean of the School of Journalism at the University of North Carolina; joined the University of Texas faculty in 1969 and was dean of the College (formerly School) of Communication, 1969–1979; first wife Beverly Kinsell, d. 1988, mother of his four children; later "courted and married LaVonne Walker Caffey," an Austin ISD early-childhood special-education teacher; died 31 October 2017, aged 87. Survivors: "his wife LaVonne", sons Matt, Ben and Paul, daughter Grace Chimene, and "Stepchildren … Brad (Erin) Caffey and Kristin (Earl) Proeger both of Austin." Corroborated by the Moody College of Communication's notice Remembering Wayne Danielson (3 November 2017), which gives the 1969–1979 deanship and the 31 October death, and by the UNC Hussman School's Wayne Danielson (1929–2017), which quotes advice from "him and his wife LaVonne." This, with Earl's confirmation of 23 September 2026 [S24], is what identifies the husband in the 1993 marriage record [S129] as the dean. The obituary's loose chronology (“three years” after 1988 before he began dating) does not date the marriage; the county record's 10 July 1993 stands.