On Friday evening, March 29, 2019, the Angels came and escorted Doris Thornton Gilliam in her transition from her earthly home in San Antonio, Texas to her Heavenly home forever ending her battle with Congestive Heart Failure. Visitation will be held Thursday, April 4, 2019 from 6:00 to 8:00pm at Crawford Bowers Funeral Home in Killeen, Texas. Funeral services will be held at 10:00am on Friday, April 5, 2019 at the First Baptist Church in Killeen, Texas. Burial will follow at Killeen Memorial Park.
Doris Estelle Thornton was born to J. E. and Maude (Johnson) Thornton on September 9, 1924 in what is now Dana Peak Park at Stillhouse Hollow Lake. When she was approximately 3 years old, the family moved to Killeen where Doris made her home until she moved to San Antonio in October to live with her daughter.
Doris started first grade at the old Avenue D School graduating with the Class of 1942 as Valedictorian. Soon after her high school graduation, she moved to Houston to attend Josephine Hodge Beauty School, again graduating at the top of her class. Doris began her career as a beautician working for Georgia Bacon at the Glory-O Beauty Shop in Killeen, Texas. On December 6, 1945 Doris married Warren Edwin Gilliam, who was serving in the U. S. Army stationed at then Camp Hood. To this union were born two daughters – Shirley Gilliam Buckley and Suzanne Gilliam Sommerfeld.
In 1957, Doris began working with her father in his Real Estate office. She began as a secretary and worked her way up obtaining her real estate salesman license and, in 1965, as the first advertised woman real estate broker in Killeen, Texas. Doris always shared her love for our Lord Jesus Christ to anyone she came in contact with. Her love for the Lord was childlike – filled with joy and wonder. There were a lot of people in Killeen who came into the J. E. Thornton Real Estate Office (later the C. P. Nadeau Real Estate Office) who, left not only with a house but had heard the Good News that Jesus loves you. Doris retired from real estate in 1989 and she and Warren began their great adventures traveling across the United States with friends and family. Doris and Warren celebrated 63 years of marriage before Warren passed away in December of 2008.
In addition to her husband, Doris joins her parents, her son-in-law, Dr. Clifford J. Buckley and her sister Mildred Geneva Lanier in Heaven. What a grand reunion this must have been as Doris and Geneva have probably not stopped talking yet. She leaves behind her daughters, Shirley Gilliam Buckley and Suzanne (Ron) Gilliam Sommerfeld; her granddaughters Traci (Chris) Lee Florio, Tammi (Brad) Lee Neely, Tiffany (Sammy) Lee Caldwell, Angela (Boe) Sommerfeld Blankenship and Lori (Andre) Duncan Glassey; 13 great grandchildren and 1 great-great grandson. She is also survived by her sister Jewel Marie Byers, her brother Billy (Annette) Earl Thornton, numerous nieces and nephews and a host of other relatives.
Pallbearers will be Chris Florio, Brad Neely, Sammy Caldwell, Boe Blankenship, Andre Glassey, Phil Thornton, Colton Crawford and Kaeden Crawford. Honorary Pallbearers will be Mike Pavazzi and Don Sutton.
“The price for a virtuous woman is far above rubies, she reaches out to the poor and needy, beauty is vain but a woman that feareth the Lord shall be praised” Proverbs 31.
Memorial contributions may be made to the First Baptist Church Future Building Fund, 3310 S. W.S. Young Drive, Killeen, TX 76542.
