Obituaries

Age 70

Ruth Jeaneane (Reed) Prichard of Donie passed away on Saturday, July 23, 2022, at Ascension Providence Hospital in Waco, following a brief illness, at age 87.

Janie Baker Hughes (1924- 2022); Beloved mother, Christian and prayer-warrior. Janie slipped peacefully into the arms of her Savior on July 4, 2022. Psalm 36:4 says, “God is within her, she shall not fall, He will help her just at the break of dawn.” Janie breathed her last at 5:50 a.m. as the sun rose over the Sandia Mountains, which she loved so well. She was born to sharecroppers, Ralph and Rilma Baker in Prairie View Community of Limestone County, south of Thornton. Ralph managed a farm for Uncle Lee Nance, on the banks of Mill Creek. It was in the Mill Creek community where Janie attended a Brush Arbor Revival meeting and was converted to Christ at age 12. Her grandfather Wm Aman was the church secretary when Prairie View Baptist Church was formed, and the church covenant was logged in his handwriting, signed by the original members. Janie never met Grandfather Wm Aman, as he passed during the influenza epidemic in 1919. At that time the 10 Aman children began an annual family reunion which continued for over 75 years. Her playmates included children of the other Prairie View families: the Nances, Foxes, Vincents and her 17 Aman first cousins. Children learned to pray while picking cotton, praying for some cloud cover. Rilma would often ride a horse to pick up her children from school: Janie rode her own horse, Sonny sat in front of Rilma in the saddle, and Bryan behind it. The Aman farmhouse sat high on Bois D’Arc stumps and one of Janie’s jobs was to sweep the chicken poop out from under it. Singing camps and Revival meetings were the primary social activity at Prairie View, where the schoolhouse doubled as the meeting house. Methodist, Baptist, and Church of Christ ministers rotated duties and all the community attended one another’s services. Ralph played Guitar, fiddle and piano, and would “call” the steps when there were “Ring Games” at the meeting house (Baptists didn’t square dance). Ralph trained his family to sing parts. Hymn singing and scripture reading was a central focus in their family times. This was the “faith” environment that Janie and family were immersed in from birth.