Ethel Mae Dugan

Ethel Mae Dugan, of Groesbeck, passed away Tuesday, December 27, 2011, at the Limestone Medical Center, at age 89. Visitation will be Thursday, December 29, 2011, from 6:00 to 8:00 P.M. at the Groesbeck Funeral Home. Funeral Services will be held at 11:00 A.M. on Friday, December 30, 2011, at the Groesbeck Funeral Home Chapel. Burial will follow in Fort Parker Memorial Park Cemetery. Pallbearers will be Jimmy Baldwin, Richard Lide, Massimo Baffetti, James Baldwin, Ben Baldwin, and Todd Neyland. Ethel was born August 30, 1922 to Manley Thurston Kirby and Melvin Gertrude (Carruth) Kirby at Battle Lake, near Mart. While she was very young, the family moved to Waco, where she graduated from Waco High School in 1940. After graduation, she worked in the sewing factory, making uniforms for World War II soldiers. Ethel met Cecil Dugan on the Waco City Bus, where he was the bus driver, and they were united in marriage in Marlin on April 21, 1943. They had been married for fifty-six years, when he passed away in 1999. After living a few years in Houston, they moved to Groesbeck, where all four of their children were born at home, and grew up. When the youngest started school, she went to work at the Texas Sportswear Sewing Factory in Mexia, where she worked the next twenty-one years. Ethel was a member of the Prairie Point Baptist Church, and attended as long as it was in existence. She then attended church TV. She enjoyed TV, especially never missing a game played by her team, the Texas Rangers. She also loved to read, and talk and visit with people. She loved the family being together, and wanted everyone there. After her husband died, she took over as the Family Matriach, and with her great humor, she enjoyed being called “one of a kind.” Ethel loved people and always looked only for the good in everyone. She will be greatly missed by all the family. Mrs. Dugan was preceded in death by her parents; her husband, Cecil; a brother, Gene Kirby, and a sister, Mildred Kirby Nawara. She is survived by a daughter, Cecilia Baldwin of Groesbeck; son, Michael Dugan of Bremond; son and daughter-in-law, Lanny and Molly Dugan of Little River-Academy; daughter and son-in-law, Lisa and Dickie Lide of Waco; nine grandchildren (and their spouses): Jimmy Baldwin and wife Lori, Kristi Watson, Richard Lide and wife Delta, Kimberly Hebbe and husband Chris, Staci Baffetti and husband Massimo, Lynn Livesay, Dustin Dugan, Casey Underwood, Cooper Underwood; nineteen great grandchildren, three great-great grandchilden; and a sister, Barbara Bowser of Lompoc, CA.