This Gift Will Blossom Into Countless Memorial Arrangements

In moments of grief, floral arrangements are more than bouquets. Their delicate petals carry the weight of acknowledging monumental loss while memorializing precious love.

Caroline Shankle ’25 ’27 saw the power of flowers firsthand through a floral design course in the Department of Horticultural Sciences and her service with Traditions Council. Wanting to connect these two experiences, she joined with Wendy Osburn, assistant professor of practice and director of the Benz School of Floral Design, to begin an initiative for floral design students to create arrangements for Silver Taps — which caught the attention of sisters Elizabeth ’91 and Mary Kallus.
 

“For our family, flowers have always been a way to connect with others,” Elizabeth said. “In celebrating the happy moments or recognizing the sad ones, they signal to someone that you’re thinking of them.”

Now, the sisters are ensuring every mourning family knows the Aggie community is thinking of them by providing endowed support so floral design students can perpetually create arrangements for memorial ceremonies like Muster, Silver Taps and Bonfire Remembrance. In doing so, Elizabeth and Mary honored their own late loved ones: their father, Daniel ’53, who loved Texas A&M University and brought them to Muster as children, and their mother, Martha, who encouraged Elizabeth to take numerous floral design classes during her studies in Aggieland.