Over a century ago, when the State of Texas was a mere 75 years young, Doris Juanita Crofford (later Stoneham then Hallmark) entered this world as the tenth and final child of Matthew Washington and Georgia Edith Ash Crofford. She was born at home on May 6th, 1921, and was welcomed into the Ash Community of Houston County, a tight-knit gathering of friends and relations whose lives centered around farming and worshiping together.
Doris graduated from Austonio High School in May of 1938, and in June, she left home for Sam Houston State Teachers College to major in Home Economics. Almost immediately, she met Thomas Benton Stoneham, Jr. They married 16 weeks later at her parents’ home on Rock Hill. They had two children, Thomas Ash (Tom) and Georgeanne. They were married exactly 6 years when Thomas suffered an aneurysm, leaving Doris widowed at the age of 23. On November 27th, 1948, she married John “Kyle” Hallmark, her husband of 53 years. They lived in the Galena Park area of Houston until their retirement. During their years in Houston, Doris enjoyed working as an insurance clerk at Hermann Hospital and an attendance clerk for the Galena Park school district.
In 1963, her life changed forever when she got a new job description: “Granmommie.” She loved her six grandchildren without measure, traipsing across the country to see them wherever Tom’s job took the family. Over the years, she could be found cheering her grandchildren on at track meets, gymnastics and tennis tournaments, piano and voice recitals, musicals, and many, many graduations.
After retirement, she and Kyle moved to Conroe and spent the next few decades next door to Georgeanne and Jerry. Perhaps Doris will be most fondly remembered by her immediate family for the all-encompassing Thanksgivings that she and Georgeanne could host. Two kitchens, four ovens, and dozens of people to feed–it must have felt like old home week to have so much family around every year.
She was an avid fan of many things, most notably, crocheting afghans for her family, writing and reciting poetry, staying in touch with her many nieces and nephews, and eating Blue Bell ice cream (preferably strawberry) twice a day–yes, twice a day, almost every day. She was a prodigious armchair contestant on Wheel of Fortune, solving puzzles with rapid accuracy right up until the last few months of her life when her worsening vision got in the way.
In 2011, Doris left Conroe and spent the last 12 years of her life first in Benbrook with her son Tom and daughter-in-law Rickey, and then, at the ripe age of 98, she moved away from Texas for the very first time to live in Oklahoma with her granddaughter Kelly and grandson-in-law Alan Miyake. Doris died at the age of 102 1/2 on Monday, November 20th, 2023. She had fallen at home one week prior and passed away peacefully in her sleep at Mercy Hospice Care in Oklahoma City.
Doris’s life is a testament that love knows no bounds. She knew great love, and consequently knew great loss. In 2001, Kyle died, leaving her alone for the first time in her 80-year life. Six years after Kyle’s death, she lost her only daughter, Georgeanne, a loss she continued to grieve until the last days of her life. Grief, it turns out, is a testimony that our love transcends our worldly existence. Doris knew this, and to her last moments, her cup of love never stopped spilling over into every life she touched. Her powerful love for her family was eclipsed only by her love for God and her Savior Jesus Christ. Doris was a lifelong member of the Church of Christ. Her faith was the bedrock of all she did and everything she was. She remained humble and continued to press on toward the upward calling of God in Christ Jesus until her last breath.
Doris is survived by her son, Thomas Ash Stoneham and daughter-in-law Fredricka “Rickey” Stoneham, grandchildren John Stoneham (Regina), Kelly Miyake (Alan), Joseph Stoneham, JoAnn McCandless (Steve), Paul Stoneham, Amy Davis (Chad), sister-in-law Dorothy Hallmark Hudgins, loving caregivers Suzi Skaugset and Selena Puente, thirteen great-grandchildren, two great-great grandchildren, and countless nieces and nephews who continued to light her days.
She is preceded in death by her husbands Thomas Benton Stoneham Jr. (d. 1944) and John Kyle Hallmark (d. 2001), her daughter Georgeanne Donoho (d. 2007) and son-in-law Jerry Donoho (d. 2012), and her siblings Florence Chaires, Effie McDonald, Bessie Milliff, Ottice Allee, Marvin Crofford, Mattie Womack, Georgia “Tibble” Brewton, Lila Alford, and Mary Lee Vaden.
Doris’s life will be celebrated at Brookside Funeral Home & Memorial Park in the Family Chapel on Saturday, December 2nd at 2:00 p.m. Interment at Brookside will follow the service. Flowers can be sent to Brookside Funeral Home at 13747 Eastex Freeway Houston, TX 77039.
As she always said at the end of every phone call with family:
“Goodbye, and I love you.”
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