Dateline: October 21, 2004

Hoggard

Funeral services for Mildred Geraldine Floyd Hoggard, age 81, were held at 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday, October 20, 2004, in the First Baptist Church in Hedley with Rev. Bruce Howard, Pastor, and Rev. Jim Howard of Amarillo, officiating.  Burial was held in Rowe Cemetery in Hedley under the direction of Robertson Funeral Directors, Inc., of Clarendon.

Mrs. Hoggard died Saturday, October 16, 2004, in Amarillo.  She was born June 10, 1923, in Walters, Cotton County, Oklahoma.  She married Clyde C. Hoggard on April 11, 1942, at the Clarendon Methodist Parsonage by Rev. Quattlebaum with witnesses L.W. and Ruby Sullivan. 

As an infant, Mildred arrived in Lelia Lake in a covered wagon.  Her memories are: “My parents told me they had an Indian neighbor whose name was Jim Papahoopsie.  I had a brown spot near my left eye, and Dad always told me that was where old Jim kissed me.  He rode up on his paint pony and wanted to see the papoose.  Dad handed me to him, and he rode off with me.  He brought me back and kissed me before he gave me back to my Dad.  When I was a tiny baby, my parents moved from Walters, Oklahoma, to Donley County.  They drove the livestock with horses ridden by my brothers.  I claim to be the youngest covered wagon pioneer to arrive in the county.”

She was a wife and a homemaker.  She and her husband owned and operated an irrigated alfalfa and cotton farm.  She cooked at various restaurants in Tucumcari, New Mexico; owned and operated the Owl Café in Hedley in 1958; and cooked at Clarendon Medical Center Nursing Home and Clarendon College.  Mildred was the valedictorian of Lelia Lake’s 1941 graduating class.  She was a member of Hedley Baptist Church and Hedley Senior Citizens.  She was baptized at the age of 5 in one of the lakes at Lelia Lake during a Methodist revival by Rev. Lackey.  Brother Rob Lackey baptized Clyde and Mildred later at the First Baptist Church in Hedley.

She was preceded in death by her husband on March 13, 1988; by her parents; and by four brothers and three sisters.

Survivors include her children, Cecilia Hoggard Lemons and Jim Lemons of Amarillo; Bob Hoggard and Carla Hoggard of Hedley; grandchildren, Melissa A. Lemons and Darren Jones, Billie Jo “Jodi” Lemons Crawford and hsuband Dean, Audra G. Hoggard Frugé and husband John, William R. “Billy” Hoggard and wife Sariah, Candi L. Hoggard Carson and husband Shaine, Kristi L. Kromer Jones and husband Darren, Kirk E. Kromer and Lisa Kromer; great grandchildren, Benjamin Beasley, Alice Beasley, Felicity Bowman, Joe Wiginton, Garrett Wiginton, Katelyn Frugé, Sarah Frugé, Rachell Frugé, Hayden Frugé, Cora Hoggard, Malese Hoggard, Breaonna Hoggard, Logan Carson, and Kolton Kromer; great great grandchildren, Nathaniel J. Bowman and Benjamin Copper Dean; sister, Ellen Floyd Wade of Panhandle; and sisters-in-law, Ruby Jones Floyd of Amarillo and Jeannette Vaughn Floyd of Hedley.

Casket bearers were William “Billy” Hoggard, Joe Wiginton, Benjamin Beasley, Garrett Wiginton, Dean Crawford, John Frugé, Shaine Carson, Darren Jones, and Carl Dee Bowman.  Honorary bearers were Gene Floyd, Jerry Floyd, Bill Floyd, Mike Floyd, Jim Lowe, David Lowe, and John Wade, Jr.

The family requests that memorials be made to Rowe Cemetery in Hedley or Odyssey Hospice in Amarillo.