Family honoring loved one with memorial scholarship musical

BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) – A family has turned their pain into purpose.

The Bryan College Station community lost a great light in 2023 named Tonja Mooring. She was a friend to many but auntie to Chrissy Ransome.

“She was literally like my second mother,” Ransome said. “I think that I spent most of my time with her growing up.”

To Nikita Bass, Mooring was a cousin and a co-worker at Sam Rayburn Intermediate School.

“Ms. Tonja was the face of Sam Rayburn Intermediate,” Bass said. “When you walk in, you would just see Ms. Tonja there with a glow. She would just say good morning and sometimes when the kids would come through, she would say good morning, darling.”

Michelle Lucio worked with Mooring for almost three years and said her days were always brighter because of Mooring.

“You would have to work with her to understand how good of a soul she was,” Lucio said. “You literally would not leave work and be the same.”

Mooring unexpectedly passed away in August 2023.

“She was a monument in our family,” Ransome said. “A pillar, if you want to call it. Just like it hurt our family, it hurt our community. Our church family and different things like that because she was all over the place with people helping and doing different things in the community.”

Now, her family continues her legacy of helping others by hosting a memorial scholarship musical. It’s on March 30 at the United Full Gospel Church in Bryan.

The event will spotlight some of Mooring’s favorite local gospel groups and serve as a fundraiser for scholarships.

“She loved God and she loved children and the best way to merge those two together was to have such an event as this and have something we would be able to remember her with but also be able to help students in education to be able to further in their education,” Ransome said.

Bass recalled a time when Mooring participated in an adopt-a-senior program. Bass said Mooring would adopt two to three seniors from across the Brazos Valley to ensure they had everything they needed for college. Mooring would also stay in touch with them, according to Bass.

“This scholarship memorial musical is right on time,” Bass said. “This is surely Ms. Tonja.”

As Mooring’s family continues to heal, they’re excited to keep her legacy alive.

“This is just the beginning,” Bass said. “I’m expecting this just to blow up huge in honor of Ms. Tonja because it was nothing she would not do for students in our community.”