William H. Sides

William H. (Herman) Sides, lifetime resident of Hill County, passed from this life on October 21, 2017, after a lengthy illness of Alzheimer’s disease. Funeral services will be held at 2:00 p.m. Wednesday, October 25, 2017, at Marshall & Marshall Funeral Directors Chapel in Hillsboro with Pastor Paul Clark of Walnut Street Baptist Church officiating. Burial will follow at Hillcrest Garden of Memory near Hillsboro. Visitation will be from 6:00-8:00 p.m. Tuesday, October 24, at the funeral home. He lived a long life of ninety-three years filled with hard work as a farmer and rancher on the Sides Family Farm in Vaughan and other farms throughout the county. He loved cultivating the land, watching the crops grow, and bringing in a successful harvest. Feeding and caring for his cattle and sheep brought him great joy, especially the birth of a new calf or lamb. He was very much at home in the peacefulness and beauty of the outdoors.

He was born on July 25, 1924, the son of H. T. (Tom) Sides and Mae Kirkland Sides. His mother passed when he was only a few months old, leaving his father with five young children. After a few years his father remarried Lucy Gray and two more brothers were added to the family. They all lived in a small home that his father built on the Sides land. These were the depression years so their lives were simple, but challenging.

He walked two miles to the Vaughan schoolhouse each day with his four brothers and two sisters. Later they rode the school bus to Abbott School and he concluded his education as a graduate of Hillsboro High School in 1942.

He began his military service the following year, serving in the United States Army's 110th Infantry, 28th Division. As an Infantryman in the European theater during World War II, he earned several medals, including three Bronze Stars and a Purple Heart. He received an honorable discharge in February 1946 and gladly returned home to Hill County where he began a custom hay baling business.

He married Bobbie Stringer on May 17, 1951. They shared sixty-six years of life together and were blessed with three children all of whom took an active part in the family farming operation during their youth. Their son, Howard Sides, continues the family's legacy of farming and ranching. The original Sides Family Farm was recognized a few years ago at the State Capitol in Austin in a ceremony celebrating Texas farms that have been in operation for over one hundred years.

Mr. Sides is survived by his wife, Bobbie Sides and daughter, Deborah Sides, both of Abbott; daughter, Marquita Lloyd and husband, Dwight, of Itasca; son, Howard Sides and wife, Michele, of Hillsboro; two brothers, Billy Sides of Ft. Worth and Jimmy Sides and wife, Helen, of Crawford; four grandchildren, Lynita Lloyd, Lanissa Willis and husband, Blake, Nathan Lloyd, and Dahlila McDonough and husband, Brian; and completing his family tree are four great-grandsons, Dylan and Jaydon Aldrich and Landon and Creighton Willis.

In lieu of flowers, the family has requested memorials be made to the Alzheimer’s Association, 6605 Sanger Ave., Suite 1, Waco, TX 76710; Walnut Street Baptist Church, P. O. Box 1144, Hillsboro, TX 76645; or the Wounded Warrior Project, P. O. Box 758517, Topeka, KS 66675-8517.