Services for Burl Austin Hill, 83, of Garland, who passed away on January 24, 2015 at Baylor Garland, will be held on Thursday, January 29, at Sparkman Richardson Funeral Home. The family will greet friends one hour prior to the service.
Burl was born in Wichita Falls, Texas to Wyatt and Vera Brown Hill. He served in the Navy for 4 years as a minesweeper and then submarines. He served during the Korean Conflict. He was stationed in Hawaii and Japan. After being discharged from the navy he went to work for Lone Star Gas Company for 20 years.
Upon leaving he went into business for himself as air-conditioning and heating specialist. His company was "Actionaire Heating and Air Conditioning". He did this for 20 years and closed the business thinking that he would retire. He then went to work for Alp's Air Conditioning and Heating for a few years. Upon the death of the owner, he retired.
Burl loved fishing. He spent many hours at area lakes fishing with his friends catching many fish. His picture had been in the paper a few times showing his expertise in this sport.
Burl loved to garden his garden measuring 50 feet by 50 feet raising many wonderful vegetables and was proud of his garden. I will now have to learn to run the rototiller. He was good at working hard to get the soil loose and workable. He was also an avid walker. He would walk about 5 miles a day. Walking at a fast pace, at times, I had to run to keep up with him.
Burl was really crazy about the grandkids and great grandkids. They were his pride and joy. One of our fondest memories was when we took the two oldest great grandchildren, Wynter and Benj Jones to Disney World in Orlando, Florida. We rode all the rides there and had a wonderful time. They claim that it was really a highlight of their lives. We were hoping to take another trip somewhere with the other great grandchildren, but this did not happen. We would have loved to take the girls on a trip somewhere exciting.
Burl and I took a trip to Hawaii many years ago. It was great fun. We toured the islands and learned about the history of that beautiful land. Burl had been stationed there while in the navy. Exploring a new place was always exciting. We also attended an International nursing Convention in Adelaide Australia. We toured Australia and New Zealand staying 3 weeks. It was very memorable. We were with a group of nurses and one other nurse had brought her husband who was Burl's age. When we were at meetings, they spent the day running around. We found the Australian people to be wonderful and friendly. It was here that they even loved Americans. They were still grateful for WWII and our helping them out during the war. New Zealand was very beautiful. We like the south Island the best. Mount Cook was great, and we went to restaurant on the top of the mountain by cable car. There were a few that didn't like the trip and were afraid. Guess it was a long way down if the cable snapped.
Another trip that was really wonderful was our Alaskan cruise. We flew into Fairbanks and stayed there a couple of days. We panned for gold at a mine and found a little bit. The mine was probably salted, but it was fun to do. I have a little charm I wear around my neck with the bit of gold that we panned.
We then went to Denali for a couple of days and toured that vast wilderness. We saw Mt. McKinley which was awesome. WE also took the Midnight Sun Express from Denali to Anchorage. The train had a dome so that we were able to view the mountains and terrain as we passed through. What a sight! It was an artist's dream.
After 56 years of marriage, he will be sorely missed. We had our ups and downs, laughter and tears but made it.
He became ill and was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He went quickly and didn't suffer. That was a blessing. He will be sorely missed by all of his family.
I want to thank my church family at Arapaho Road Baptist Church who were wonderful with their visits, prayers, and comfort. To pastor David Rogers, Dan Lyles our song leader, bill Sword or life group leader, all who visited prayers with us and gave so much love and support.
COMPARTA UN OBITUARIO
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