Dennis William DONLEY, III

Living married Living [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Living married Living [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

The flooded headwaters of the North San Gabriel prevented Lula Adams Hodge from traveling to see a medicine show that featured "Chief Hippa Kay Yo." The next morning the local doctor swam his horse across the swollen stream to the Hodge home nine miles north of Burnet, where he delivered to Lula and George Warren Hodge their first son, William Elgin Hodge. Uncle Jim Shelby jokingly consoled Lula for having missed the show by remarking, "You have your own little Hippa Kay Yo," and the appellation stuck, for Elgin was known thereafter as "Hip" Hodge. As he grew up on the family farm, he developed into a baseball pitcher of some renown, and long before the advent of the UIL, pitched for country ball teams all over central Texas. Featuring a wicked screwball, he once pitched twenty-six scoreless innings for a Fredericksburg team. Sports took a backseat after he began a family that eventually grew to include six sons. He farmed, raised livestock in Burnet County, and worked as a ranch manager until the drought of the early 1950s drove him to the city and employment at Diamond Alkali in Deer Park. The country life he was forced to abandon remained in his heart, but the labored as a chemical worker for 22 years without absence or tardiness. Retiring in 1976 he returned to Burnet County and built a retirement home on the banks of the San Gabriel within sight of his birthplace. During his retirement he enjoyed tending his livestock and garden, listening to radio broadcasts of baseball games, and attending Masonic Lodge meetings in the company of his boyhood friends.

William married Daphne Maureen WOLF on 15 Jan 1937 in Crane, Crane, Texas, USA. Daphne (daughter of Living and Living) was born on 28 Sep 1916 in Snyder, Scurry, Texas, USA; died on 14 Sep 2005 in New Braunfels, Comal, Texas, USA; was buried in Burnet City Cemetery, Burnet, Burnet, Texas, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Maureen was a fifth generation Texas, whose family roots thread from colonial New England and Virginia through "The Old Three Hundred" of Texas to pioneer ranches of West Texas. She was a favorite grandchild of O. P. "Pack" Wolf, Marshall of Snyder, Texas for twenty-six years, and if her father missed her during one of their visits to the Snyder square, she was usually found with Pack, astride his big roan "Rowdy," helping him make the rounds. After "Neenie" graduated with honors from Snyder High School in 1935, the family returned to Burnet County. Her ancestors, Thomas Hopkins Wolf, William Henry Sims, Clarissa O'Hare, Thomas Glimp, and Aredlia Woods had been among the first settlers of the region. There she met her future husband. Tall and leggy, she was a perfect dance partner for Elgin, and from their first twirl on the dance floor, they were inseparable. They first set up housekeeping in Burnet and resided there, except for brief stays in Hondo and Arlington, until moving to Deer Park in 1954. In the suburbs of Houston, she was the consummate wife and mother, tireless in her dedication to her family. Her meals, most featuring family recipes never written but long committed to memory, were feasts of Texas cooking. When Elgin retired in 1976, they returned to the their farm at Burnet, birthplace of four of their sons, where she continued to reside. Maureen was a member of Beta Sigma Phi, The Order of Eastern Star, Chapter 425 in Burnet, Texas, and was an organizer and charter member in OES Chapter 1063 in Deer Park, Texas.