Sarah E. Hood

Sarah E. Hood, family matriarch, retired military wife, beloved mother and grandmother, made her transition from this life on October 19, 2018 at the age of 95 years.

She was born on July 1, 1923 in Crystal City, Texas to Etta Geraldine Cook and William Luther Osborn into a south Texas, small town family of eight – her parents, four siblings of which she was the youngest, a maternal grandfather, and a paternal grandmother. It was while in high school, where she graduated as Valedictorian of her class, that her friends began calling her Sallie – and the nickname stuck.

Sallie attended Lon Morris College in Jacksonville, Texas for one year, then went on to San Antonio, Texas to graduate from Draughon’s Business College. She began working at Fort Sam Houston photography shop where she kept the books, managed the front office, and learned about photography. Her work in the photo lab sparked her skills as a photo colorist, which she continued to enjoy as a hobby for many years.

In San Antonio, she met her future husband, Theodore (Ted) Hood. At the age of 19, with a world war raging in Europe, she and Ted married in August,1942, and he enlisted in the Army Air Corps the following month. Thus began Sallie’s lifelong career as a military wife and mother. After the war they transferred to Carswell AFB in Fort Worth, Texas where she gave birth to a daughter and a son. After their re-assignment to Elmendorf AFB in Anchorage, Alaska, she gave birth to two more sons.

Sallie was active with her children in the Catholic church, in church choir, the Catholic schools they attended, and she volunteered in the school libraries during each school year. In Fort Worth she was instrumental in organizing, fund-raising, and collecting books for the new library at St. Paul School, her children’s elementary school. In the early days when the Air Force was developing as a new branch of the U.S. military command, Sallie was active in organizing family and children’s support services locally, which resulted in the organization quickly growing into Air Force-wide services for dependent families.

Sallie was a dedicated mother and creative homemaker. Over the years she made her family’s homes in Fort Worth, Texas; Anchorage, Alaska; Burns Flat, Oklahoma; Elk City, Oklahoma, Jacksonville, Arkansas; and Little Rock, Arkansas. She was always the organizational, educational, and spiritual strength for her husband and children. She was the single parent during the times her husband was away on duty, and the home-based power behind the throne when he was home. She always kept the family connected and moving forward with her warm smile, her sharp wit, her determined sense of rightness, and her graciousness and dignity.

Sallie always referred to her family as a tribe of gypsies. When she and Ted retired from military life, she was excited to buy their first house in Little Rock, where her two younger sons attended Catholic High School for Boys. After years of growing roots in Little Rock, she and Ted moved to The Cove at Good Shepherd Retirement Community in 2007. Sallie has made her home at Fox Ridge Living since March, 2018.

She was the last of her birth family and preceded in death by her parents, Etta and Will; her sister, Ruth; and her brothers, Roger and George, and her husband, Ted. She is survived by her daughter, Geraldine (Gerry) Ganong of Little Rock; her son Theodore (Ted) C. Hood, Jr. and his life partner, Dealia (Dee) Yancey, of Fairfield Bay; her son John B. Hood and his wife, Joyce Hood, of Little Rock; her son Robert W. Hood and his wife, Rita Hood, of Marionville, Missouri; seven grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren.

Sallie Hood’s legacy of love, family bonds and friendships, commitment to lifelong learning, and the joys and curiosities of living in her world will infuse her family’s culture for the generations that follow her.

Rosary will be at Griffin-Leggett Funeral Home in Little Rock, Thursday, October 25th at 6:00 PM, with visitation to follow. Funeral Mass will be held at Our Lady of Good Counsel in Little Rock on Friday, October 26th at 9:00 AM. Interment with her husband at Arkansas Veterans' Cemetery in North Little Rock will follow.