Margaret Langham Hinkle

Margaret Langham Hinkle went home to be with her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ on the 27th of June 2010. Her loss is painful to her family and friends, but her life was one that touched all of them with love, sweetness and a gentle spirit.

Margaret Langham was born in Lockhart, Texas on the 15th of February 1919. She was the daughter of Robert Bruce Langham and Olive Parris Langham. At the age of six, Margaret went to live with her aunt and uncle, Walter and Maggie Ellison, a childless couple who deeply longed for children and asked the Langhams if they could keep one of their seven children for a school year. For the rest of her childhood, Margaret spent school years with the Ellisons in Lockhart and summers with her own family in whatever part of the oilpatch her Dad was working at the time. Her sweet nature was such that she always knew both families loved her and she accepted the arrangement of the adults without objection.

One of her classmates from first grade through eighth grade was to be the love of her life, Allen Hinkle. When he was thirteen, his family moved from Lockhart to Baytown, and the two did not see each other for over five years. While working in the office of a small store one summer during his college years, Allen looked down on the store floor and saw a girl he recognized. One of the family’s best stories was that he almost lost his job chasing Margaret as she left the store.

They were married in 1941 and enjoyed a remarkable marriage for 42 years. They had three daughters, and a life filled with adventure and love. Margaret was preceded in death by her beloved husband Allen, by her parents and her aunt and uncle, and by her sister Marie and her brothers Thomas, Robert, Joseph, Nathan and Bob. She is survived by her daughter Ann Bussey and Ann’s husband Charles, her daughter Linda Golden and Linda’s husband George and her daughter Joan Wright and Joan’s husband Douglas; by granddaughter Lisa Pacheco and Lisa’s husband Andrew, grandson Brian Wright and granddaughter Lauren Wright; and by great grandchildren Sara and Andrew Pacheco. She had many nieces and nephews, and was particularly close to her nieces, Gail Seidel and Barbara Langham. She also leaves behind a multitude of friends she loved and enjoyed, and wonderful caregivers, Anita Smith and Bettye Acker, who made the last years of her life much happier and easier.

Margaret graduated from Lockhart High School and Texas Women’s University. She taught first grade for a year before marrying Allen and followed him wherever the Navy sent him during World War II. They lived the rest of their lives in Houston. Margaret was a long-time member of Second Baptist Church and the Worthwhile Bible Study Class. She enjoyed her memberships in the Tanglewood Garden Club, of which she served a year as president, PEO, the American Museum Society, The Guild of Houston Baptist University and The Guild of the College of Biblical Studies. She was a strong believer in prayer, and served as a telephone intercessor for many years in the Second Baptist Prayer Room. Margaret enjoyed flowers and trees, reading, jigsaw puzzles, feeding the birds and squirrels who gathered in her back yard every day, and her precious Tonkinese cat, Juliet.

Friends are cordially invited to a visitation with the family from five o’clock in the afternoon until seven o’clock in the evening on Wednesday, the 30th of June, in the Library of Geo. H. Lewis & Sons, 1010 Bering Drive in Houston.

The funeral service is to be conducted at ten o’clock in the morning on Thursday, the 1st of July, in the Sanctuary of Second Baptist Church, 6400 Woodway Drive in Houston.

Immediately following the service, all are invited to greet the family during a reception in the adjacent Deacon’s Parlor.

On Friday, the 2nd of July, all are invited to gather with the family during a graveside service and interment at one o’clock in the afternoon at the Lockhart City Cemetery, 600 North Colorado Street in Lockhart, Texas.

For those desiring, and in lieu of customary remembrances, kindly consider a memorial contribution to Second Baptist Church, 6400 Woodway Drive, Houston, TX, 77057; or to the Dallas Theological Seminary, 3909 Swiss Avenue, Dallas, TX, 75204.