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BEATRICE NEAL
Services are pending for Beatrice Neal, 85, of Henderson with Southern Funeral Home of Henderson. She died Wednesday, March 9, 2005 at Henderson Memorial Hospital.
EDNA EMMA GUIN DANAHY
Edna Emma Guin was born in Caster, La. on May 27,1904. She was the third daughter and third child of five daughters and one son born to Charles Foster Guin and Georgia Pardue Guin. Instead of starting school at age six as some other children did, Edna took care of her younger siblings while her mother worked in the cotton fields.
She was very talented musically. At a young age she taught herself to play a repossessed pump organ that was being stored at her home. Later she got a chance to play an itinerant fiddler's fiddle and realized that she wanted a fiddle! So she went to work picking cotton until she had enough money to buy herself a fiddle.
She was only able to attend public school through the eighth grade. For the next several years she worked at whatever job was available, the best being Postmaster at the U. S. post office in Alberta, La. She kept that position until the post office was shut down due to severe vandalism. All her life she enjoyed showing friends the money order for one cent that the government sent her as final payment. One time when she was helping a black lady cook at a cafe, she started frying eggs for each customer individually rather than just frying a platter full. The cook got so upset that she "fell into a faint" Edna decided to leave that job.
Later she was cooking and serving tables at a different cafe, when a group of laborers came in. One young man, Eddie J. Danahy, liked her looks and personality. She liked his, too. They were married Nov. 1, 1928 in Alberta, La. with no relatives in attendance. They worked at whatever jobs they could find, even running a laundry with Eddie's brother and wife. Edna was popular as a fiddler for dances in peoples homes.
Their son, Eddie Jerry Danahy Jr. was born in July 1931, three months before they moved to the East Texas oil fields near Kilgore. They had a two room house built and then added two more rooms to accommodate as many as seventeen relatives who were hunting work! It was a hard life with no electricity for the first seven years, and no running water. But they made many friends, and thrived.
There was almost no task that Edna couldn't do. When the sister of her best friend, Mrs. Mac, was diagnosed with tuberculosis, and had to be quarantined from her family, Edna built a room for her to live in. In thanks, Mrs. Mac gave Edna a china cabinet which she cherished all her life.
Edna loved having cameras, and taking pictures, even buying a movie camera in the 1940's. There are more than a 1000 snapshots in her home, but very few of her, because she was the one behind the camera.
After thirty-eight years of oil-field work, she and Eddie retired to a house that they built on Caddo Lake. They enjoyed fishing, playing dominoes and cards, and having friends and relatives visit them sometimes every day. Edna was a trot line fisherman. We have a picture of her (in a dress, of course) holding a fifteen pound channel cat that she had caught on her trot line that she had run herself using her own John boat.
Another of her pleasures in those seventeen retirement years was being active in the Karnack Baptist Church, and later in the Non-denominational Caddo Lake Church, the pastor of which lived next door to Edna and Eddie. They both helped build the church building.
Edna was a wonderful cook. Her catfish fried in a deep cast iron skillet was perfect, as was her chicken. She made a heavenly yellow cake layered with bananas, nuts and real whipped cream. She was "famous" for her coconut, chocolate, and pecan pies which she made for the Mobil Oil retirement, senior citizen, and church dinners.
She was accomplished at knitting, crocheting, embroidering, quilting and tailoring. The two heavy bedspreads that she crocheted would certainly win prizes. When her grandsons were young she made shirts for them that had no raw seams. Every seam was covered with a sewn-on bias strip.
As a novelty, she embroidered a map of the United States. Using different colored thread for each year, she embroidered the route of the family's cross-country vacation trips.
She owned a two wheeler bicycle when they lived on the oil lease. After retirement, she bought a three wheeler. It was an enthralling sight to see that "old"woman (wearing a dress, of course) flying down that lake road on her three wheeler.
A clever thing that she could do was recite the alphabet very rapidly, backwards. Z, Y, X, V, etc.
She was an excellent domino player, having learned the game at age five while watching older relatives play. The last game we played together was in the nursing home, when she was almost 100 years old. We played our best, but she won the game
Upon the death of her husband in 1987, she bought a home in Kilgore. she joined the Eastview Baptist church and became a loyal member. As the saying goes "whenever the doors opened, she was there." She loved being the Sunshine chairman or treasurer of her Sunday School class. On Sunday mornings before Sunday School, she went to the nursing home and pushed wheelchair bound residents to the worship service lead by the chaplain, James Griffin.
At her home, she became fanatic about keeping the leaves in her large yard swept up. She was sweeping the back yard at age eighty-seven when she fell and broke her hip. By grabbing blades of grass, she pulled herself around to the front yard where a passerby could see her. After having hip replacement surgery, she was soon sweeping the yard again, even though friends and family advised her against it. One friend, Paul Lucky, told her he was going to saw the handle off her rake. She replied, "I'll just buy another one!" She continued to sweep her yard, even while using a walker to stand, until at age ninety-five she became too weak to do it.
When her son was playing in the high school band, she became an avid football fan. In her later years, when she had three televisions , she sometimes had three different games going at the same time. For one of her birthdays in her nineties, a friend gave her a picture of Roger Staubach that Roger had autographed especially to her. She was proud of that picture.
She was a devoted Bible reader, having followed the schedule in "Our Daily Bread" and reading through the Bible twelve times. She received certificates from the church for doing this.
She moved to he Kilgore Manor in early 2004. For her 100th birthday, the Eastview Baptist church had a party for her with her friends and family and all the residents of the home invited.
She had a very strong personality that was on occasion hard to deal with, but her passing will leave forever a hole in the hearts of her son, Jerry Danahy Jr. and his wife, Fay, and her grandsons Paul Danahy and Michael (Cheryl and Betty) Danahy, and her former daughter-in-law, Disa Danahy and her remaining relatives and friends.
Her grandson, Michael, describes her as the sweetest, most fun and joking person in the world.
Services for Mrs. Danahy will be held at two o’clock p.m., Friday, March 11, 2004 at the Rader Funeral Home Chapel in Kilgore with the Reverends James Henderson and Larry Darnell officiating. Burial will follow in the Danville Cemetery and visitation will precede the funeral services from one until two o’clock p.m. at the funeral home.
LORETTA PRUITT
Funeral services for Loretta Pruitt, 87, of Tyler, formerly of Kilgore are pending with Rader Funeral Home is pending with Rader Funeral Home in Kilgore. Mrs. Pruitt died Tuesday, April 5, 2005 at Hospice Homeplace in Tyler.
Please leave online condolences www.raderfuneralhome.com.
WILL CURRY
Funeral services for Will Curry, 68, of Henderson are pending with Southern Funeral Home in Henderson. Mr. Curry died Monday, April 4, 2005 at his residence.
MARIE BEARD CHALLIS
Graveside services for Marie Beard Challis, 76, of New London, were 2 p.m., Tuesday, April 5, 2005 with Rev. Kelly S. Krone and Hunter Hawkins officiating. Burial was in the Pleasant Hill Cemetery at New London under the direction of Burrows Overton Funeral Home. Mrs. Challis died Sunday, April 3, 2005 at Good Shepherd Medical Center in Longview after a lengthy illness.
Survivors include her spouse; son; two step-sons; brother; brother-in-law; grandchildren; six grandchildren; several nieces and nephews; five great-grandchildren.
Jude Morris
Graveside services for Jude Morris, 85, of Dallas, formerly of Kilgore, will be 11 a.m. Saturday at the Danville Cemetery with the Rev. David Hampton officiating. Mr. Morris died Thursday, Sept. 16, 1999 in Dallas.
He was born in Williford, Ark. July 11, 1914 to Emanuel and Tina Morris. He served in the Army during World War II, and he was a Baptist.
Survivors include his wife, Freda Morris of Dallas, formerly of Kilgore; daughter and son-in-law, Peggy and Richard Ladd of Richardson; two grandsons, Zachary Ladd of College Station and Matthew Ladd of Richardson; a sister, Pearl Rader of Golliad; three sisters-in-law, Stella Mae Morris of Kilgore, Evelyn Morris of Williford, and Ernestine Morris of Hardy, Ark.; and several nieces and nephews.
The family will receive friends at the Rader Funeral Home Saturday from 9 until 10:30 a.m.
Aline Sarver
OVERTON - Services for Aline Sarver, 92, of Baytown and formerly of Overton, will be 2 p.m Saturday at the Cottle-Pearson Funeral Home Chapel with the Rev. Bill Baker officiating. Interment will be in the Overton City Cemetery. Pallbearers will be deacons of the First Baptist Church in Overton.
Mrs. Sarver died Thursday, Sept. 16, 1999 in a Baytown nursing home.
She was born Tuesday, Aug. 6, 1907 in Louisiana to the late Albert and Leticia Mouton Toles. She was a homemaker and a member of the First Baptist Church in Overton. Mrs. Sarver had been a resident of Overton most of her life before moving to Baytown in December, 1998.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Joe Robert Sarver, and three daughters, Bertie Hale, Betty Joyce Mitchell, and Margie Sarver.
Survivors include three grandchildren, Beverly Hale and Patrick Hale, both of Midland, and Vickie Lowrey of Overton; and by a niece, Grace Swick of Baytown.
The family will receive friends at the funeral home today from 6:30 until 8 p.m.
