Cheryl Head

Cheryl M. Dennis Head, 87, of Hillsboro died at 10:30 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 15, at her home after a long illness.

Funeral services will be 11 a.m., Saturday, Feb. 19, at Marshall and Marshall Funeral Directors Chapel in Hillsboro. The Rev. Dale Gore will officiate. Visitation will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 18, at the funeral home. Interment will follow at Hillcrest Garden of Memory.

Mrs. Head was born July 21, 1923, in Pioneer to Gus and Mattie Dennis. She graduated from Brownwood High School in 1940. She and Horace W. Head were married on August 24, 1941, in Brownwood. They had been married 67 years when Mr. Head died March 19, 2009.

Her father, a farmer, Gus Dennis, died March 22, 1936. She and her mother moved with the family cow to Brownwood. While attending high school, Mrs. Head went to work part-time at Bettis and Gibbs in Brownwood and was employed there three years.

After she was married and while Mr. Head was serving in the U. S. Army during World War II, Mrs. Head lived with her mother and her two young sons from 1942 to 1946 in Cisco and worked at Higgenbotham dry goods store. After the war, the Heads returned to Brownwood where he attended Howard Payne and resided there until 1950 when they moved to Hillsboro.

The Head residence had been at 802 Park Drive 61 years. It was a home with a warm, welcome atmosphere where the Heads, friends and family enjoyed home-cooked meals, pie and coffee and hundreds of games of 42. Mrs. Head loved her home and was a perfectionist in decoration and upkeep.

Mrs. Head worked as a clerk at Martin-McDonald several years before she took a job as receptionist at Hillsboro Clinic Hospital on Craig Street. For a number of years she was the first friendly, warm face that greeted many patrons of the former clinic and hospital. She resigned in 1969 to travel with her husband in his job as a piping superintendent with several large construction companies. They made many friends through his work and through churches in cities in Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana and southeast Texas. They returned to Hillsboro when Mr. Head retired in 1993.

Mrs. Head had been a member of First Baptist Church continuously since 1950. She had been a third grade teacher in the Sunday school giving her Christian witness to many young men and women who today are ministers and Christian business leaders in their communities. She had a wonderful soprano voice and sang in the sanctuary and Silver Chords choirs.

The Heads were longtime judges of the absentee boxes in Democratic Party primaries and general elections in Hill County. She was an avid supporter of Hillsboro Eagle sports, not only when her children participated but when sons and daughters of her friends were involved.

Maybe her crowning achievement, and one of which she was most proud, was tutoring children in her neighborhood in math and other subjects to help them earn their high school diplomas.

Besides Mr. Head, she was preceded in death by her parents, a brother, Dr. Russell Dennis, and a sister, Happy Nelson, both of Brownwood.

Survivors include two sons and their wives, Danny and Barbara Head of Pampa and Jim and Ellen Head of Littleton, CO, and one daughter and her husband, Deana and Harry Wood of Orange; four grandchildren and their spouses, Karen and Tony Doyle of Pampa, Tessa Jo Head of Boulder, CO, Amy and Mike Brister of Orange and Sam and Megan Wood of Frisco; one great-grandson, Jonathan Doyle of Pampa; and three great-granddaughters, Meghan and Brooke Brister of Orange and Maddie Wood of Frisco and several nieces and nephews.

Pallbearers include Sam Wood, Mike Brister, Tony Doyle, Terrance Finnell, and Jonathan Doyle. Honorary pallbearers include John Nelson, Billy Little, Jim Wiley, Dist. Judge Bob McGregor, Daryl Sanders, Carroll Weedon and John Erwin.

Memorials may be made to First Baptist Church, P. O. Box 271, Hillsboro, TX 76645 or Hospice of The Heart, P. O. Box 2081, Whitney, TX 76692.