Agnes Cunningham

Visitation will be on Wednesday, December 3, 2014 at Rhoton Funeral Home in Carrollton, Texas from 5:00 to 7:00. Rosary will follow at 7:00 pm.

Funeral services will be held at 10:00 am on Thursday, December 4, at St. Ann’s Catholic Church, Coppell, Texas. Interment will follow at the DFW National Cemetery at 1:15 pm. Agnes will be laid to rest next to her husband of over 63 years, Leroy L. Cunningham.

Agnes was preceded in death by her parents, Frank and Albina Pechal of Kaufman, her husband, Roy Cunningham, and her son, Michael Lee Cunningham and by her younger sisters, Mary Bainbridge and Georgia Rung. Agnes is survived by her daughter, Patricia Stafford of Carrollton, her sister, Rose Marek of Kaufman, Texas, brothers, Gene Pechal of Ennis Texas, Johnny Pechal of Ennis, and Frank Pechal of Dayton, Texas, five grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

Agnes Cunningham was born at home on a farm near Kaufman, Texas, on August 30, 1926 to Frank and Albina Pechal. She was the second of seven children (4 girls and 3 boys).

Agnes spoke only the Czech language when she began school at a one-room school called Lone Star School near Talty, Texas, three miles from their Kaufman farm. She and her sisters walked or rode a large farm horse to school. She often carried her lunch in a Crisco can. Lunch often consisted of biscuits, lard, and onion. On the farm Agnes and her siblings worked hard. Agnes used to plow the fields walking behind a plow hitched to a horse. In the summer Agnes hoed weeds from the cotton fields and also picked cotton while her father worked in Kaufman at the cotton gin.

Agnes quit school after 8th grade and moved to Dallas to live in a boarding house for girls. Her first job was at Sears and Roebuck on Lamar Street in Dallas. Sears had a photography studio and to advertise the studio they would choose an employee to photograph and post the pictures at the front entrance. For many months, Agnes’s “sweater” photo was on display. Agnes was a beautiful blue-eyed brunette.

After World War II ended, Agnes’s roommate at the boarding house set Agnes up on a blind date with her boyfriend’s buddy, USMC Cpl. Roy Cunningham. Agnes and Roy fell in love and were married May 14, 1946 with Agnes’s uncle officiating, Father Wesley Pechal. For the two and a half years, Agnes and Roy lived in a small house in Fort Worth, Texas. Roy remained in the Marine Corps Reserves until early in 1949. He was about to be sent to fight in the Korean War but when he found out that Agnes was pregnant with their first child, Roy left the marines, went to business college, and became a typist and teletype reporter. The last month of the pregnancy Roy took Agnes home to the farm in Kaufman to stay with her parents until the birth of their daughter. On October 1, 1949 Patricia Ann Cunningham was born.

Roy was soon hired as an oil reporter for Rinehart’s Electrical Log Service Company in Dallas, Texas. Roy, Agnes, and Pat lived in Dallas for about two years. Pat was very ill with asthma and pneumonia so the doctors recommended that the family move to a drier climate. Rinehart’s named Roy vice-president and allowed him to move his family to Midland, Texas so that he could open a Rinehart office there, West Texas Electrical Log Service. In December 1956, their son, Michael Lee, was born. The family remained in Midland, Texas until 1966. The oil business was beginning to take a dive so Roy got a job in Dallas with Squibb Taylor Corp. He was the purchasing agent for the propane gas equipment company. Roy and Agnes lived in Irving, Texas for the next 30 years.

During that time, their daughter, Pat, married Maston Stafford in 1971 and had two children, Colleen and Maston Eric. In 1980 Michael married Cyndy Bragg and they had three children, Julia, Valerie, and Michael II. For about a year, in 1999, Roy and Agnes lived at their lake house at Cedar Creek Lake but finally settled in Carrollton, Texas where their children were living at the time. Granddaughter Colleen married Joseph Monier and gave Roy and Agnes two great-grandsons, Colton and Joey. Roy lived to see the birth of great-granddaughter, Layne Besetzny, daughter of Julia and Adam Besetzny in February of 2010.

Roy passed away in April of 2010. Agnes remained in their home in Carrollton for about a year and half. Agnes lived to see the birth of two more great-grandchildren, Clare and Andrew Besetzny.

The last three years of her life, Agnes lived at Villagio Assisted Living, less than a mile from her home in Carrollton. Agnes went into hospice care in May 2014 but remained at Villagio. Her son, Michael Lee, passed away after 7 weeks in ICU with pneumonia on October 6, 2014. Because of Agnes’s dementia the family decided to not tell Agnes of her son’s passing.

Early in the morning on November 28, 2014 Agnes was reunited with Roy and Mike in heaven.

Arrangements under the direction of Rhoton Funeral Home, Carrollton, TX.