Vida Jo Wooten

Vida Jo Wooten of Tyler passed away on March 11, 2026. Born on August 21, 1932, in Ropesville to Floyd and Rachel Copeland, she moved with her family to Chandler as a child. She attended Tyler Junior College, where she was a proud Apache Belle, and later earned a bachelor’s degree from North Texas University and a master’s degree from Stephen F. Austin University.

Vida enjoyed a distinguished career as an educator with Tyler ISD, teaching for 24 years at Bell and Bonner Elementary Schools before becoming the first female curriculum director for all 15 elementary schools in the district. She met her husband, John Ward Wooten, while attending Tyler Junior College. After retiring from education, she and John lived in Indonesia and Norway for several years while he worked in the petroleum industry. In 2000, they returned to Tyler and became active members of Marvin Methodist Church, where Vida served as a Stephen Minister, participated in the Marvin Mission Team, and volunteered with Hospice of East Texas.

She was a loving and generous soul who had a gift for making others feel valued. She enjoyed lively games of dominoes, cherished good company and a pimento cheese sandwich, and delighted her family with her slightly off-key renditions of old Methodist hymns.

Vida was preceded in death by her parents, Floyd and Rachel Copeland, and her husband, John Ward Wooten. She is survived by her brother, Don Copeland and his wife Martha, her son, Clifford Wooten and his wife Judy, her daughter, Kristal Stafford and her husband Richard, her grandchildren, Jennie Wooten, Rachel Wooten, Philip Wooten, Daniel Stafford, and Kirk Stafford, and great-grandchildren Henry, Fitzgerald, Maeve, Fiona, and Sybil.