E. Hugh Huckabee Jr.

Memorial service and funeral: 12 noon, Tuesday, Oct. 11 at Laurel Land Funeral Home and Memorial Park, 71 Crowley Road, Fort Worth, Tx 76134. Reception to follow at Mexican Inn Cafe 5017 S. Hulen St.

Prior Evening's Visitation: Monday, Oct. 10, 6 - 8:00 p.m. at Laurel Land.

Memorials: In lieu of flowers, consider donating to Gentiva Hospice Foundation 7801 Mesquite Bend Dr., # 105, Irving, Tx 75063.

Hugh, Jr. was born in Abilene in 1925 to Ezekiel Hugh Huckabee, Sr., a mechanic and used car dealer, and Emma Sue Spivey. The family moved to the boomtown of Kilgore in 1931, where Hugh Sr. sold cars to newly-flush roughnecks and Hugh Jr., an only child called “Sunny” by his parents, splashed through puddles of oil in galoshes walking to first grade. They moved to Marshall in 1934, where Hugh Jr. attended Marshall High, played trumpet in a swing band, won awards for dramatic speaking, and played varsity tennis. All the while he shared his father's fondness for hunting and fishing. At 17, after a year of college at A&M, he joined the Army Air Corps, and was stationed in Italy during World War II. He was a tail gunner on a B24 Liberator, flew 25 combat missions, and earned an Air Medal “for meritorious achievement while participating in aerial flight.” After the war, he studied law at the University of Texas at Austin. While a member of the Alpha Tao Omegas, he met Jo Ann Jones, a Kappa Kappa Gamma and classmate from Dallas, tutored her in math and won her heart. They eloped in 1948. They settled in the Wedgewood area of Fort Worth near Hugh's parents, attended University Christian Church and raised four children; then built a home a film miles away on beautiful Sycamore Creek. As a young attorney he worked for the Public Housing Authority and later for Houston Fire and Casualty, before going freelance as an attorney and realtor. He enjoyed bow hunting on leases in the Texas Hill country and occasionally adopted wild foundlings, including a bobcat, named Billy Bob and a javelina named Poncho. He was a voracious reader of non-fiction, particularly about the Texas and Mexican Revolutions, an avid football fan, rooting for the Longhorns and the Cowboys, a serious golfer, and a discriminating shopper at the finer flea markets of Tarrant County. He was known among friends and family for his business acumen, dry wit, playfulness, loyalty, and generosity, and for following his own drummer. Jo Ann passed of kidney cancer in 2006. Hugh battled Alzheimer's for 15 years but miraculously never lost his charismatic and singular personality, nor his fear of flying.

Survivors: His sons, Dan, Tom, Patrick, daughter Susan and husband Randy Roche; and grandkids, James and Callie.