Lisa Kelsey Shepard 1957-2024
Lisa K Shepard passed away after courageously battling long-term illnesses. Lisa was a grievance counselor, funeral director, and nurse.
On August 10th, 1981, Lisa, a premier Longhorn swimmer, found new avenues for celebrity status when she swam from France to England. Her endurance and determination carried her across the challenging water, covering the 21 miles in 15 hours and 22 minutes.
Long-time friend Peggy Little shares the rest of Lisa’s swim across the English Channel. She says,
"The more complete story is that halfway through swimming the channel, a storm was forming, and a big gust of wind whipped her arm back, and she tore muscles in her arm and swam the rest of the way WITH ONE ARM! After she got back, she never recuperated, and it was her gynecologist who found she had Hodgkin's Lymphoma. She had swum the channel with one arm AND with cancer."
In 1976, she was the first female UT swimmer awarded a full scholarship. She qualified for the 1976 Olympic Trials, missing qualifying for the Olympic Games by only .01 of a second in the 100m. free. Lisa received the Frank Erwin Award in 2003 for outstanding contribution to Texas Swimming.
She served as co-captain of the team in 1977 and 1978 and earned All-American honors in 1978.
Lisa K. Shepard Obituary
With solemn hearts, we announce the passing of Lisa K. Shepard (New Braunfels, Texas), whose presence will be deeply missed, having departed on July 11, 2024 at the age of 66. Family and friends are welcome to leave their condolences on this memorial page and share them with the family.
As we bid farewell to this luminous soul, let her loved ones carry forward the torch of her memory, illuminating the path ahead with the warmth of her love and the brilliance of her spirit. Though Lisa may journey beyond the horizon of our sight, her essence remains woven into the very fabric of our being — a guiding light in the darkness, a beacon of hope in the night.
If you would like to write a remembrance of Lisa, please send it to Billydale1@gmail.com, and it will be posted.