Lou Durham

Annie Lou (Hayes) Durham of Groesbeck, passed away at home on Thursday, July 25, 2019, following a short illness, at age 90.

Funeral services will be held at 10:00 A.M. on Saturday, July 27, 2019 in the Groesbeck Funeral Home Chapel.   Sheriff Dennis Wilson will officiate, with Stacey Conover also speaking.   Burial will follow in Cobb Cemetery.

Pallbearers will be Dallas Keen, Dr. Garry Dossey, Scott Frank, Scott Conover, Michael Blacknall, and Sheriff Dennis Wilson.   Honorary pallbearers will be Bob Stephenson, Elmer Beene, Danny Collins, Morris Dean Beaver, Bill Renfroe, and Jimmy Copeland.

Lou was born February 9, 1929 to Parker D. Hayes and Nora (Wimbish) Hayes in Groesbeck, and graduated from Groesbeck High School, and then attended business school in Waco.  Growing up on the Hayes farm near Fort Parker, she showed calves and grew up riding horses, and was a barrel-racer.

Lou married Tommy Beck and they had two daughters, Tomi Lue and Mary Garlan.   He passed away in 1970.

On March 16, 1974, Lou married Guy Durham of Groesbeck.  Lou worked with Guy in the real estate business, with their office in the building next door to the Post Office, for many years.    As Guy developed the Durham subdivision in the late seventies, turning mesquite pasture into the newest housing site for Groesbeck, Lou was the decorator for the houses choosing the colors and other features.

With Lou’s lifelong love of horses, she and Guy bought their first thoroughbred race horse in Madisonville in 1981, and from then on were involved in horse racing through 2009.  Dallas Keen from Cameron, started training their horses when he was in his twenties and carried all their horses to many racetracks all over the country.  Lou and Guy attended the races, as did many of their family and local friends, in New Orleans, Shreveport, Del Mar, Nebraska, Ruidoso Downs, Lone Star, Arlington, and other tracks.   Horse racing was really Lou’s life for many years. 

They spent every summer, from the last weekend of July through September 4, at Ruidoso, New Mexico, to escape the hot summers of Central Texas, and because Lou loved the mountains.    

Holidays were family time enjoyed at the Durham home in Groesbeck.  She was a help to her brothers and sisters as their health declined.   Lou enjoyed her yard with flowers, she collected birdhouses which were given her from the family bought at many different places, and she always enjoyed her dog.

Lou was preceded in death by her parents; first husband, Tommy Beck; brothers and sisters, Parker Hayes, Polly Hayes, Harold Hayes, Mary Goodrich; and nephew, Jimmy Goodrich.

She is survived by her husband, Guy S. Durham of Groesbeck; daughter, Tomi Lue Beck of Rockwall; daughter, Mary Garlan Little of Groesbeck; daughter and son-in-law, Sandra and Bob Stephenson of Palestine, and daughter, Virginia Currin of Arlington.  She has nine grandchildren and their spouses:  Stacey and Scott Conover, Scott and Denise Frank, Kristi Beldin, Stephanie and Barry McGowan, Steve and Amanda Stephenson, Stan and Lauren Stephenson, Adam and Marissa Flynn, Rebecca and Patrick Hannon, and Amanda Flynn and Rob Rocicki; and also seventeen great grandchildren.    Also, a niece and nephew, Brenda and Jimmy Copeland of Groesbeck; cousin, Shirley Graves of Uvalde; and many other extended family.