Burniece Mae (Holman) FERGUSON HUGHES

FERGUSON, HUGHES, VLADYKA, GREEN, HOLMAN, DARST

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 10/5/2006 at 01:53:11

Burniece Mae Hughes was born July 10, 1899, in Dows, Iowa, and died peacefully May 30, 2000, at Stonebridge Health Center, Austin, Texas. Her childhood was lived in Iowa, Kansas, and Oklahoma Territory. In 1919, she married David Nimrod Ferguson, and they farmed a family farm near Le Grand, Iowa, until her husband's death in 1935. In 1940, she moved to California. A bookkeeper by occupation, she was employed during the World War II years by the navy at Hunters Point, near San Francisco. On April 2, 1945, she married Thomas D. Hughes with whom she lived happily until his death in 1956. In her retirement, she lived in Los Angeles, where her work as a volunteer with the City of Los Angeles Recreation Department was honored by long-time Mayor Tom Bradley. She was a Worthy Matron of the O.E.S., Hollywood Chapter. Mrs. Hughes is survived by her only child, Merijane Ferguson Vladyka, and son-in-law of 54 years, Vahl Vladyka; grandsons, Mark Vladyka, Mason County, Penrod Vladyka, Paauilo, Hawaii, Boyd Vladyka, Austin; six greatgrandchildren; a niece and a nephew, Mary Holman Green and V. R. Holman, to whom she was especially devoted; and numerous cousins.Among her distant cousins were Jacob C. Darst, who died in the Alamo, and William Steele Holman, who served in the United States House of Representatives for a generation following the Civil War. She also fondly recalled that, as a teenager, she once danced the tango with matinee idol Rudolph Valentino. She was one of the rare persons to have lived in three centuries. Her life was described in the American-Statesman special supplement of June 27, 1999, chronicling Austin area centenarians. She experienced the catastrophic 1918 influenza epidemic, the Great Depression of the 1930's, and World Wars I and II, defining events of the 20th Century. She was a loving mother and grandmother, devoted to her family and many friends. Burial and a memorial service will be in Le Grand, Iowa, at the gravesite of her first husband, David Nimrod Ferguson Jr.

[daughter of Grant and Katie (Wills) Holman, living in Eagle Grove, Wright County, Iowa - 1900]
Austin American-Statesman (TX)
June 3, 2000