Nell Anderson Lanning died from complications of Alzheimer’s disease on January 12, 2017, in Cedar Park, Williamson County, Texas. The youngest of nine children, she was born in Palm Valley, Texas, on July 25, 1932, to Claus Richter (Jack) Anderson and Selma Elizabeth Johnson Anderson. She graduated from Round Rock High School and soon after, was hired to work as a secretary in the office of the Texas Board of Control, headed by Senator Royston C. (Doc) Lanning. There she met the senator’s son, a handsome young law student, who had come to visit his father. By all accounts, the senator’s son was instantly smitten with the beautiful Anita. On June 6, 1953, she married the young lawyer, Royston SearcyLanning. The couple settled in Austin where they set about raising a family. Anita was a homemaker until 1970, when she went to work at the University of Texas Memorial Museum. Shortly thereafter, she was hired as a secretary at the UT School of Pharmacy, where she worked for professors in the Pharmaceutical Chemistry Department. She later moved to the office of Pharmacy School Dean James Doluisio, where she worked until she retired in 1992. Anita and Royston lived in Austin, San Antonio, and briefly in Lubbock, returning to central Texas after enduring the cold and dust of a single Lubbock winter. In 1975, she and Royston bought a home in Round Rock, where Anita grew up, and lived there 40 years. After Royston died in 2015, Anita went to live at the Cedar Ridge Alzheimer’s Special Care Unit, where she resided until her death. Anita was always active in church, no matter where she happened to reside at the time. She sang in the choir, was on Altar Guild, taught Sunday School and Vacation Bible School, was a Circle Leader, and taught English to the wives of foreign graduate students. She was a member of Palm Valley Lutheran Church and was involved in many activities there. Anita was proud and honored to be selected as one of eight committee members for the opening of the new Stony Point High School in Round Rock, named for the historic school housing grades one through eight established in 1891 by Swedish pioneers. Anita was in the fifth grade when the school closed in 1942 but in October 1998, a new high school naming committee was formed to review, discuss, select and recommend names for the high school newly built in the Round Rock Independent School District. The committee met to review the names and recommended to the school district that the school be named Stony Point. On March 29, 1999, the Stony Point Parent Teacher/Student Association meeting honored the former students by introducing each former student and presented a certificate to each as an honorary PTSA charter member. Anita was preceded in death byher husband, Royston; her sisters Bernice Nesselrotte, Evelyn Barker and Margaret Ingram; and her brothers Charles Anderson, Bill Anderson and Walter Anderson. She is survived by her sister Bertha Stern and brother Berton Anderson; four children and their spouses, Cynthia Lanning Hampton and Keith Stewart Hampton; Royston Conrad Lanning and Ricki Davis Lanning; Julia Bernice Lanning Mallin and Charles Michael Mallin; and James Harder Lanning and Monica Hinojosa Lanning; grandchildren Rebekah Clare Hampton; Emily Catherine Lanning Berquist and spouse Peter Berquist; Mollie Elizabeth and Lanning Ziegler Mallin; and James Richard, Brian Royston, and Robert William Lanning; and many nieces and nephews. Anita was a loving and devoted wife and mother. She and Royston were married for more than 61 years and were never away from each other for more than a short time. Visitation Sunday, January 15, 2017, 3:00-5:00 pm, at Beck Funeral Home, 15709 RR 620, Austin TX. Funeral service Monday, January 16, 2017, 2:00 pm at Palm ValleyLutheran Church, 2500 East Palm Valley Blvd., Round Rock, Texas.