LAURA FAYE HAMMONS

LAMAR- Funeral services will be held at 10 a.m. Thursday at Daniel Funeral Home for Laura Faye Hammons, 88, Lamar, who died Friday, June 30, 2023, at Good Shepherd Community Care in Lockwood. Burial will follow in Stockton City Cemetery in Stockton.

A visitation will be held from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday, at the funeral home.

Contributions are suggested and made payable to the Lamar Senior Citizens Center or the First Baptist Church Hospitality Fund (to help with funeral dinners), in care of the funeral home.

Condolences may be shared at www.dfhlamar.com.

Survivors include the love of her life, her husband Junior; one son, Jamie Hammons, Pensacola, Fla.; one daughter, Judy Crockett and husband, Darrel, Sheldon; five grandchildren, Sarah Hammons, Allison Hammons, Nicole Hammons, Blake Crockett and wife Lori and Bradley Crockett and wife Jeni; five great-grandchildren, Emersyn Crockett, Brenton Crockett, Caleb Crockett, Gentry Crockett, and Ensley Crockett and three sisters, Roberta Esry Walker, El Dorado Springs, Barbara Esry Wallen, Stockton and Anna Ruth Esry Field and husband Ed, Muskogee, Okla.

She was preceded in death by two sisters, Deloris Esry Nikodim and Elnora Esry Seim; one brother, Johnny Clayton Esry and a grandson, Barry Crockett.

Mrs. Hammons was born Sept. 30, 1934, in El Dorado Springs, to Harry Pruet Esry and Mildred Leona (Sumner) Esry. She was a 1952 graduate of El Dorado Springs High School. She married Junior Hammons on Oct. 3, 1954, at her parents’ home in El Dorado Springs. They celebrated 68 years together and she was immensely proud of the fact that “they never exchanged a cross word between them”.

Those who grew up in Lamar in the ‘60s and ‘70s are most likely to remember Mrs. Hammons as a cashier and later the bookkeeper at McKay’s IGA. She also served as the administrative assistant at Farm Bureau Insurance until she and her daughter Judy bought the Mode-O-Day women’s clothing store on the south side of the Lamar square.

Mrs. Hammons was a very active volunteer and you would often find her at the Bloodmobile drives. She was a member of the First Baptist Church, where she and her husband were members of the Young At Heart group and she helped to organize the lunches for bereaved families at the church. The couple enjoyed traveling with Mrs. Hammons’ sister and brother-in-law, Elnora and Harold Seim, where they camped in all 48 continental states. They loved attending craft shows, fishing at Stockton and Truman lakes and attending car shows with their 1950 Chevy pickup and their 1966 Ford Mustang. Many will remember her from her cookbooks, quilts and potholders that she frequently gifted. Birthdays were always important to her. She sent cards and always called each and every family member on their birthday.