Annie Loretta - The Family Artist

Annie Loretta was born on July 8, 1924 at the “Banks Place” near Falls Creek about five miles southeast of Hico.   Last year Jack, Jean and I drove to Falls Creek and we think we may have found the house where she was born.  When she was four and a half, they moved to the “Holiday Place” and stayed there for one year.  It was about a half mile west of the “Home Place” which she identified as the “Powledge Place.”  She lived there from the time until she was 17.   

She wrote, “After graduation from Hico High School and after December 7, 1941 (Pearl Harbor) I moved a lot and held a conglomerate of jobs.   At Brownwood, I broke eggs to be dried for the armed forces.   I worked as an attendant for a Gulf Oil service station in San Antonio and I went to business school and worked at a flower shop.”  She was married to Ralph Cook in 1943.  Their son Ronny was born March 3, 1945.  The marriage ended in divorce in 1948.   Ronny died in a car crash in May, 1966.  A second son, Larry (Ross)  was born January 4, 1947.  Ross lives in Delaware.  He works as an inspector for a highway construction company.  I enjoy reading his Facebook postings.

She was subsequently married to Levi Holley in September, 1949.  Their son, James C. was born July 16, 1950 in Hico and their daughter Lettie Jo was born in January 1, 1959 in Waco.     Jim lives on the first farm Loretta and Levi bought.  He worked for 30 plus years with Southwestern Bell and spent two years in Viet Nam.   He married Gail Wade.  They have two girls, Kari and Kristal.  Kari the mother of Loretta’s first great grandchild, Haley Peterson.   Lettie Jo finished Texas A and M with a BA in Business Management.  She has two children from her second marriage – Holly (born in May, 1984 and Colt Fadal born in March, 1987). She also has a child named Dylan White, born in November, 1996 from her marriage to Danny White.  She is divorced and raising her children alone.

Loretta’s husband, Levi, died of a heart attack when he was 57.  They had moved to a farm near Waco (the one Jim lives on).  Later they bought additional acreage and built a house on it where Loretta lived until her death in 2009.   After Ronnie’s death, Loretta enrolled in art classes and later taught art.   She gave it up for awhile and then resumed painting in later life.  She was enormously talented as an artist.   We proudly display some of her work in our home.

 I can remember when I was a young boy attending a program at Hico High School.   Loretta was in some kind of musical program at school and I still remember her singing a song called “Doing What Comes Naturally.”   It’s strange how stuff like that sticks in my mind.  

I was honored to be asked to speak at the graveside service for Loretta when she died. There were a number of years that I didn't have much contact with her, but during the last ten years of her life, I often visited with her when we went to see Ann's sisters in Waco.