JANET HALL HODGES

This is from a note from Wini Wallace Mercer dated February 7, 2006:

I visited Janet in May because we were not sure how much time she had left and I wanted to say my good-by in person. She was very much interested in Gables and the reunion. She had hoped to go, but I think she had already begun her battle with cancer about that time. I took all the information I had and we talked about early elementary school through highschool and so on. I think she would very much like to have her information posted.

She was married in January 1963 to Charles "Chili" Hodges. They had met when she went to a small college in Texas. I can't remember the name. She came home at Christmas wanting to get married, but her parents thought that she was too young and said "No". So, she went back to school in Texas and eloped. They then started a surveying business together. I think Chili bought the one he had been working in and they built it up together into quite a successful business. They had a ranch outside of Crockett, Texas and raised their family there. Janet and Chili had two children, Jennifer and Jason. When the children were small, Janet opened and ran a children's store in Crockett. Jennifer and her husband Russell Bond gave Janet and Chili two grandsons. She and Chili were married for 42 years when she died last July 8. She told me when I visited with her that all she had ever wanted in life was to be a wife and mother. She felt blessed that she had been able to do that. She also had quite a green thumb and there were flowers all over the gardens on the ranch. She fought quite a difficult battle against cancer with dignity and I could tell she was well loved by family and friends when I was there.