In a life devoted to music, Tommy Hughston was a master of the electric guitar and will be remembered for his performances with the David Patton Band, the Pengwins, Moonstruck, and Desert Highway. He had little time for today's electronic techno sounds, preferring the musical textures of the 1960s and 1970s, and he was immensely proud of his vintage Fender Stratocaster, a gift from his father, which he played throughout his career. According to one of his friends, "Tommy was an artist - he could play that guitar just like ringing a bell - and I think that was his artistic vision. Every time he played he was proclaiming it anew: the awesome mystery of it all."
Thomas Frederic Hughston was born in Corpus Christi, Texas on 24 October 1957, the third son of Edward Wallace Hughston (1929-2017) and Joan Palmer Hughston (1928-2003). When he was two years old, Tommy (as he was always known) and his family moved to the Dallas area where he attended John J. Pershing Elementary School and Benjamin Franklin Junior High School, graduating from McKinney High School in 1976. In his youth, Tommy was a fine athlete; he was an Eagle Scout, and twice attended Philmont Scout Ranch near Cimarron, New Mexico, where he acquired a liking for the rugged vistas of the southwest of the United States. After working in Dallas and Austin, and touring with various bands for a number of years, Tommy retired to New Mexico in 1995, where he lived the rest of his life and died on Saturday 5 August 2017 at his home in Taos at the age of fifty-nine.
He is survived by his brother Lane Hughston, brother Mark Hughston and sister-in-law Marla Hughston, niece Katherine Kennedy and her husband Walter Kennedy, nephew Christopher Hughston and his fiancée Bridget Jernigan, nephews Benjamin and Parker Hughston, and great-nephew Wyatt Kennedy.
A graveside service will be held at 10:30 a.m., Thursday, 17 August 2017 at Alexander Cemetery, County Road 288, Anna, Texas. The family will receive friends during a visitation on Wednesday evening from 7:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m. at Turrentine-Jackson-Morrow Funeral Home, 2525 Central Expressway North, Allen, Texas. A memorial service will be held at 10:30 a.m., Saturday, 19 August 2017 at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, 5923 Royal Lane, Dallas, Texas.