John Benjamin Hammons

John Benjamin Hammons passed away late on Monday, June 17, 2019. He was 94 years old and still lived at home with some outside help on a regular basis. He was at his home when the Lord came to welcome him to a better home.

John was born October 13, 1924 in Taft, California. He was the second son of Clarence D. Hammons and Roxy Lee Boulware Hammons. John “Beezer” Hammons graduated from High School at Lone Wolf, Oklahoma. He was nominated to the 1941 Oklahoma all-state football team. The notice of that team was pushed out of the news by the attack on Pearl Harbor and that team did not receive notice in the Major Oklahoma newspaper until 50 years later. With the world at war, John married his high school sweetheart, Thelma Evelyn Wilson, in 1943. He was then 19 and she turned 17 on their wedding day. John was drafted into the Marines in 1945 and left for boot camp in Quantico, Virginia. At that time, John and Thelma were a farm family with one baby. John had barely completed boot camp when the war ended and he came home to Oklahoma. A few years later, with a growing family, two boys, Jerry and Donald, he and Thelma moved to the New Mexico town of Carlsbad and went to work for SWPS, the area electric utility, where he stayed employed until his retirement in 1986. Not long after his retirement from Southwestern Public Service, he and Thelma moved to Lubbock, to his current home, to be closer to doctors for Thelma and for himself.

Thelma and John joined and became active at the Raintree Church, where he is still a member. His wife, Thelma, preceded him in passing on August 19, 2012. Although active in the First Christian Church in Carlsbad, singing in the choir along with John, and raising two successful children, Thelma was not always in the best of health and John made many of his life and career decisions based on his “care giving” duties. John was also preceded in death by his parents, Clarence and Roxy Lee, and his older brother, C.D. Hammons, Jr.

John leaves behind two sons; Donald Lee Hammons, his daughter Stephanie and granddaughters Megan and Kamryn, of Portales, NM and Jerry David Hammons, his children, daughter Lacey and her twins, Nora and Everett, son, Michel D and Jade, all of central Texas, Jo Atauvich, a niece, of Lawton, nieces Shirley Pacheco and Linda Browning, both in the Oklahoma City area and nieces (always known as the Johnson girls) Joann Ross, Carolyn Anglin and Karen Stopker, all also in the Oklahoma City area.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests memorial donations be made to Joe Arrington Cancer Center of Lubbock, at 4101 22nd Place, Lubbock, TX 79410.