Zelma La Rue Wallace Waggoner

Zelma La Rue Wallace Waggoner, the Co-Founder of the Don and Zelma Waggoner Foundation, beloved wife of Donald F. Waggoner, and adored mother, grandmother and great-grandmother died Wednesday, November 30, 2022, two months before her 90th birthday.

A resident of Naples, Florida and Greenville, South Carolina, Zelma Waggoner was born in the small village of New Boston, Ohio to the late James Sidney Wallace and late Grace Florence Steele Wallace. She graduated from Glenwood High School in New Boston, Ohio, and married her high school sweetheart sixty-nine years ago. Her early work was with Scioto Co. Tuberculosis Association and the Commercial Credit Corporation in Portsmouth Ohio. Later she worked with the American National Red Cross at Camp Chaffee, Arkansas, followed by the Armstrong Construction Company in Kingsport, Tennessee, and then with Rental Uniform Company in Kingsport, Tennessee. Alongside her husband Don, they opened and operated Rental Uniform Service in Greenville, South Carolina in 1956. Their business grew across the southeastern United States, until it was purchased by Cintas Corporation in 1991. She served as the corporate Secretary and Treasurer for many years and served in the same capacity in their business, Sunbelt Properties.

She was a lifelong member of the Church of the Nazarene, and volunteered as the church Treasurer, the church organist, and did many other duties in service to her church. She earned an honorary Doctorate Degree with Trevecca Nazarene College, in Nashville, Tennessee, where a music performance hall is dedicated to her long years of service.
“Zelma Waggoner was a kind, gentle and genteel soul – a committed and devoted wife, mother, and philanthropist. Through the foundation that she and her husband started, the Don & Zelma Waggoner Foundation, many wonderful local and regional initiatives were funded through the couple’s amazing generosity. Her kind, unassuming and graciousness will always be cherished and remembered.” -Alan Ethridge, Metropolitan Arts Council.

She is survived by her husband, Donald F. Waggoner; her children Janette Elaine Waggoner Wesley and husband Renato G. Vicario, Elizabeth Anne Waggoner Anthony and husband Kenny Anthony, Keith Russell Waggoner and wife Vicki Waggoner; her grandchildren: Lindsay Carol Wesley and her companion, Fernando Forero, Reid Andrew Wesley and his wife Kachine Rhoden Wesley, Kristopher David Wesley and his wife Leah Williams Wesley, Lauren Kay Anthony Rayburn and her husband Aaron Rayburn, Matthew Donald Anthony, Kristen Brooke Anthony Cavalier and her husband Mike Cavalier, Emily C. Waggoner, Jessica Garrison, Paige Hunt, Ellery Waggoner, Alyssa Waggoner, Joie Waggoner, and Grace-Elizabeth Waggoner; her great-grandchildren: Nakoa Lucano Wesley, Norah Evelyn Wesley, Logan Mayer, Lillie Rayburn, Madeline Rayburn, Katrina Cavalier, and Dominic Cavalier. Other family includes the late Ralph Wallace, the late Estle A. Wallace, the late Betty Jo Wallace Martin; a cousin, Jerome Wallace; and many nieces and nephews.

Visitation will be held Sunday, December 4, 2022 from 1:00 p.m. until 3:00 p.m. at Thomas McAfee Funeral Home, Downtown in Greenville, S.C. The funeral service will be held Monday, December 5, 2022 at 1:30 p.m., at Greenville First Church of the Nazarene. Entombment will follow in Woodlawn Memorial Park.

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