Person:Lillie Humphrey (1)

According to Jody Dillard:

Lillie Fay grew up on a farm near Avoca, Texas. It was a hard life filled with hard work picking cotton, tending to the babies and going to school. She advanced to the eighth grade but had to leave to help her mother care for the children while her father was away for many years. She married Jack Dillard at the age of sixteen and followed him around as he worked the oil fields. Although she worked hard and had very little while trying to raise five children, she never lost that enthusiasm for life. She was sincere and had a smile for everyone. She worked as a waitress, a janitor and a day care provider to help supplement the income for the family.

She was tireless and had a huge capacity to take on more responsibility. Friends, neighbors and relatives were in admiration of her cheerful nature and boundless energy. At the age of 69 she had quadruple bypass surgery after suffering a major heart attack. Only two weeks after returning home from the open-heart surgery, she was sitting in the front yard sawing down a tree stump that she had gotten tired of looking at. It was at least twelve inches in diameter. Her daughter, Betty, came by and found her as she was finishing carrying the wood to the back yard. Betty exclaimed with much concern to Mom, that she had been told by her doctors not to do any strenuous activity for at least six weeks while she healed. Lillie's innocent reply reflected the indomitable spirit of this remarkable woman. "It wasn't strenuous, I did it sitting down!"

At her funeral, the minister said.."Mrs. Dillard was such a giving woman, she was the only person I have known that would spend hours, days and weeks, tending a garden to grow beautiful vegetables.. then hours and hours putting those vegetables in jars, and then turn around and give every one of them away. There seemed no limit to her ability to give. "That in a nutshell was Lillie Fay Humphrey Dillard.

Obituary: Wichita Falls Daily Record: April 2, 1993 LILLIE FAY DILLARD

SEYMOUR, Texas -- Lillie Fay Dillard, 74, died Wednesday (March 31st) in a Wichita Falls hospital. Services will be at 2 p.m. Friday at First Baptist Church of Seymour with the Rev. Tommy Culwell, pastor, officiating. Burial will be in Riverview Cemetery under the direction of Seymour Funeral Home.

Mrs. Dillard was born March 26,1919, in Avoca, Texas. She was raised in the Abilene, Texas area and had lived in Odessa, and Kingsland, Texas before moving to Seymour in 1981. She and James "Jack" Cowan Dillard were married Feb. 7, 1936, in Lueders, Texas. He died Nov. 26th, 1983. She was a member of First Baptist Church.

Survivors include three daughters, Linda Keith of San Antonio and Betty Karr and Joanne Dillard, both of Seymour; two sons, Roy Don of Los Angeles and James of Bellevue, Wash; her mother, Rosa Estelle Humphrey of Wichita Falls; two sisters, Bobby North of Wichita Falls and Maxine Gilbert of Mount Vernon, Texas; two brothers, Joe Humphrey of San Jose, Calif., and Tommy Humphrey of Olney, Texas; 13 grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren.

Memorials may be made to First Baptist Church Mission Fund, Baylor County Emergency Medical Service, Seymour School Foundation or the American Diabetes Association.

Lillie was a member of First Baptist Church, Avoca, Jones Co., TX

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Rootsweb chart of Jody Dillard: James C. Dillard Family wc.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi op GET db jody44.