Mrs. Wilma Lucille (Craft) Hawkins, 100 years of age, left to be with God in the evening of November 26, 2012 in the presence of her family.
Lucille served God as a mother, a homemaker and as a Baptist ministers wife. She was also a teacher and a musician, playing both piano and organ. Lucille was born September 8, 1912 in Copeville, Texas. Her father, Charles Bert Craft, was a railroad station master and her mother, Ora Lee Jackson Craft, was a beloved homemaker. Lucille was the middle of nine children;her siblings in their birth order are Era, Elmer, Lois, Weldon, Herbert, Evelyn, Rob and Gurtha. All are deceased except Gurtha Louise Craft Wilson, who lives in Decatur, Texas. Lucille's husband, Truman Ray Hawkins, died in 1976. Their five children are Phillip, Ann, Sara, David and Mary Lou. Her beloved family also includes her sons-in-law Pete Ramsey, Jim Kneipp, and Dale Sinclair and daughters-in-law Jackie and Val. Lucille has 12 grandchldren;Ruthanne, Mitch, Angie, David and Paul Hawkins; Rodney, Melissa and Penny Ramsey; Keith Kneipp, Amanda Hawkins and Cameron and Kevin Sinclair. She has been a loving part of the lives of 16 great-grandchldren and 3 great great grandchildren. Her grandchildren, neices and nephews have always been a much loved part of her life.
As a child and young woman, Lucille attended Copeville Schools and returned to teach there after her education at East Texas State Teachers College in Commerce and North Texas State Teachers College in Denton. Her college memories included making friends, eating a lot of peanut butter, and keeping a pet white mouse. She enjoyed traveling by train, especially to West Texas, where she visited relatives and then moved there to teach for several years in a small school near Lubbock, Texas. She always remembered that time with fondness and a sense of adventure, including lighting a fire in the classroom stove, trying to coach girls' basketball, and traveling in that region, especially enjoying trips to Palo Duro Canyon. For all of her life, riding on a train was a part of happy memories.She also liked lighthouses and enjoyed looking at those she saw on trips and photographs and paintings of them from around the world; she believed that there is a spiritual comparison in having the bright light shine to show lost souls the way home. Lucille was active in church activities in her husbands' pastorates and, after his retirement, at the First Baptist Church of Dallas, where she was a pianist and teacher in the primary department. In addition to enjoying her musical talent,, Lucille loved to paint, read, work crossword puzzles and play forty-two and scrabble. Moms friendly, loving personality, kindness, and patience were appreciated by her family and by many friends throughout her life. God blessed her children and many others with this wonderful woman who was a constant reflection of His love.