Shirley Ann Williams Merritt Hood

Celebration of her life will be held on Sunday, April 16, at 2:00 p.m. at Hillcrest Church of Christ. Burial will be Monday, April 17, at 11:00 a.m. at Elliott-Hamil Garden of Memories.

Shirley Ann Williams was born on June 16, 1936, to Gladys O’dere and Jesse Lee Williams in Abilene, Texas. She grew up in Abilene and graduated from Abilene High School in 1954. While attending Hardin-Simmons University and working at the Bell Telephone Company, Shirley met Allen Gene Merritt, and they were married on September 7, 1957, at University Church of Christ. After the birth of their first child, they moved to Azle, Texas, where Allen coached football and basketball, and remained there until 1973, when they returned to Abilene.

During her time in Azle, Shirley worked for Stratoflex Industries in Ft. Worth, Texas. While raising her three sons, she returned to college at Texas Wesleyan and graduated with a degree in elementary education. Shirley was an energetic, devoted, and beloved teacher for twenty years, instilling a sense of worth and love of learning in hundreds of children in Azle at Eagle Heights Elementary and then in Abilene at Bowie Elementary.

After retiring from teaching in 1989, Shirley began a whole new career and pursued her lifelong passion for interior design, earning her degree from the Sheffield School of Interior Design and the New York School of Design. She became an entrepreneur, opening Signatures Interiors, her own interior design studio. For 10 years, she worked joyfully in helping people beautify their homes. As a designer, her professional mission was to create within the boundaries of her clients’ personal styles and not her own tastes, which is a beautiful reflection of her selfless heart.

After the death of her husband Allen in 2002, Shirley reconnected with an old friend, Don Hood, who had also recently lost his beloved spouse. They married in 2004 and spent many happy years together enjoying and welcoming a crowd of blended family—children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, siblings, nieces, nephews, aunts and uncles in their gracious gathering place of a home.

Shirley was open-hearted and loving to all, often approaching strangers whom she felt might feel awkward or uncomfortable to extend a hand, a smile, and a welcome. Her great gathering of family remembers her for her kindness to all, her effervescent personality, unconditional love, and deep-hearted perseverance. The inheritance Shirley left us all is strong. She was a living example of love, grace, inclusion, and forgiveness. She took on both joy and struggle with faith in an unfailing God who sees and knows our hearts and gives us strength to do both the hard and the simple. She excluded no-one, taking to her heart all who were placed in her path—and many that she gathered in—with the unfailing and unconditional love she learned at the Father’s knee. She is greatly missed, and yet we celebrate her release from the dementia that plagued her and the peace that has been restored to her dear heart.

Shirley was preceded in death by her parents, Gladys and Jesse Williams, and her husband, Allen Merritt. She is survived by her second husband, Don Hood; her sons Mike Merritt (Stephanie), Mark Merritt, and Matt Merritt (Cheryl); her sister Cynthia Deegan (Bobby); her grandchildren Lindsey Womack (Jedediah), Tyler Merritt, Lanie Merritt, Shawna Lefevre (Wesley), and Chris Eaton; her great-grandchildren Buckshot, Grizzly, Meadow Mae, and Daisy Womack, Kolbie and Madison Proffitt, Cotton and Fynlee Lefevre, and Tatum, Bryson, and Abigail Eaton; and her sister’s children who considered her a grandmother, Jennifer Deegan (Zach Richards), Robert Deegan (Paige), John Michael Deegan (Jacquelyne), and Gracie Haak (Justin) along with seven great nieces and nephews and many other beloved family members.

Memorials may be made to International Sanctuary Ministries, where Shirley had generously given to help orphans and widows and to feed destitute children in India.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.elliott-hamil.com for the Hood family.