Mabel Marie Laird Hudgins

Mabel was born on May 16, 1926, to Benjamin M. and Grace Madeline Campbell Laird in Port Arthur. After graduating from Thomas Jefferson High School in Port Arthur, she attended and graduated with a music education degree with piano emphasis from East Texas State Teachers College (Texas A&M Commerce), where she met her husband, Jimmie M Hudgins. She and Jimmie lived in Colmesneil, Longview, Nacogdoches, Timpson and Port Arthur, as well as Colorado Springs, Colo., and Sioux City, Iowa. During those stays, Mabel taught school full-time and briefly worked as an Avon district manager. Mabel lived in Arlington for the past 18 years and Nederland prior to that.

What she did best and never stopped doing was teaching piano students and accompanying for many recitals, contests and performances. She was an accomplished private teacher, public school teacher and, for a while, taught at Lamar University. Mabel taught her most recent students until two weeks before her death. She truly loved and enjoyed helping each of her students become as much of a pianist as they wanted to be. She began playing piano at age 8 and started teaching at the age of 13.

Mabel was a Christian and loved worshiping at the Northwest church of Christ in Arlington. She was dedicated throughout her entire life to living according to God's will. And Mabel was a great mother. The best.

Mabel was preceded in death by her parents and two sisters, Mary Alice Davis and Margaret Wilson.

Survivors: She is survived by husband, Jimmie; daughter, Judy Wilson (Mark) of Tyler; sons, Joel Hudgins of Los Angeles, Calif., and Michael Hudgins of Kremmling, Colo.; granddaughter, Mindy Gossett of San Antonio; grandson, Brady Wilson of Tyler; great-grandchildren, Grant and Jenna Gossett of San Antonio.