Neva Jean Hyden

Neva Jean Hyden, of Lake Limestone, passed away at Providence Hospital in Waco on Friday, June 22, 2012. Visitation will be Tuesday, June 26, 2012, at the Groesbeck Funeral Home Chapel, from Noon to 2:00 PM. The funeral services will begin at 2:00 PM. Tuesday, in the Chapel, with Church of Christ ministers, Glenn Easterly, Mike Morton, and Richard Williams officiating. Burial will follow in Cobb Cemetery. Pallbearers will be David Hyden, Jr., Clint Hyden, Jeffery Schneider, Dennis Schneider, Garrett Stowe and Kenneth Stowe. Neva was born on the 7th of July, 1925 in Greensburg, Kansas to Wes and Marie Weide. Brother Gene and Sister Leona were also born in Greensburg, while youngest sister Darlene was born in Lake Sheridan, Colorado. Neva married Howard Hyden on the 13th of March in Colorado Springs, Colorado at the West Side Church of Christ. Together they had 4 children: David L. Hyden, Ron G. Hyden, Carol J. Hyden and Connie M. Hyden. Neva was born several months premature weighing only 3 lbs. Due to the premature birth Neva battled constant congestion and poor hearing having to always sit in the front of the classes at school. Added to the premature birth was a long bout with dust pneumonia that Neva developed while living in Lake Sheridan, Colorado during the dust bowl. Neva remembered very little of both Greensburg and Lake Sheridan, except for the trees in Lake Sheridan where Gene, Leona and she would play. It was also in Lake Sheridan that Neva remembered the awful dust storms during the early 1930’s that struck SE Colorado. When the dust storms would hit they would get indoors and hide under the bed. Even then the dust was terrible. Due to the dust pneumonia, the family moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado about 1934. It was in Colorado Springs that Neva grew, married and had children before moving to South Texas with Husband Howard and sons David and Ron. While terrible dust storms occurred at Sheridan Lake, it was where the family was introduced to Christ by the Perkins family. Both Wes and Marie were baptized into Christ there and added to the Church of Christ. Neva was later baptized into Christ at the West Side Church of Christ where the family worshiped in Colorado Springs. Neva was a strong lifetime member of the Church of Christ. The Weide family lived in a two story home on 7th street in the west side of Colorado Springs. The family lived downstairs and rented out the two rooms upstairs for a while when the children were young. Neva along with Gene and Leona attended school at Washington Elementary about two blocks west of their home on 7th street on the west side of Colorado Springs. Together, they would walk to and from school. Later Neva would attend the high school in downtown Colorado Springs. It was at Colorado Springs High School that Neva met her best friend Laura Nell Jenkins. Neva met her future husband Howard at the West Side Church of Christ in Colorado. Howard was stationed at Colorado Springs in the Air Core during World War II. Howard attended church service at the West Side Church of Christ, where Neva’s father Wes invited Howard home for lunch after church services one Sunday. They dated and were later married. Neva’s Dad, Wes, owned a Speedway gas station on South Nevada in Colorado Springs. Neva’s husband Howard Hyden would later work at the Speedway with Wes. Neva’s mom Marie sold make-up from home while raising the family. Neva’s grandmother Dora Weide ran a Laundromat three blocks south on 7th street at the corner with Pike’s Peak Avenue. Dora lived above the Laundromat along with a couple of her daughters. Neva would work at the Laundromat during the summers to make her spending money. Neva would also baby sit for the Perkins who lived nearby. Neva and Howard started going together in the summer of 1942 and were married in March of 1943 at the Weide home on the 13th of March by Koy Tidwell witnessed by Hazel Murdock and Hershall Jenkins. War time and no money, the newlyweds spent their first night together in one of the upstairs bedrooms. Gene and Leona welcomed the newlyweds by short sheeting the bed and dumping cereal in the bed. The newlyweds lived in this room until Howard was transferred in April to Barksdale Army Air Base near Shreveport, Louisiana. With Howard a staff sergeant, the young couple was able to get an apartment on base. Unfortunately, the only furniture to start was a single army cot on which the young couple slept. Neva followed Howard next to Army Air Base in DeRidder, Louisiana. At DeRidder Howard purchased an entire apartment of furniture for $25. The furniture was sold for $25 when the young couple moved back to Colorado Springs. Neva moved back to Colorado Springs in late 1944 before her first son David Lynn Hyden was born. Howard later transferred back to Colorado Springs serving there until the end of the war. Sometime after the war Howard moved Neva and his young family to Premont in South Texas. It was in Premont, near Howard’s Mother and Father, that Neva and Howard would raise their family. While the next son Ronnie was also born in Colorado Springs, the two daughters Carol and Connie were near Premont in the Falfurias hospital. Neva and Howard lived in or near Premont until they moved to Lockhart, Texas along with youngest daughter Connie. Neva and Howard lived in Lockhart from the mid 1970’s until the early 1990’s when they moved to Lake Limestone near Groesbeck, Texas. While Neva was a wife, mother and Christian, Neva was also an avid bowler. Neva’s bowling prowess reached its maximum when she won a Pro-Am bowling championship in Irving, Texas. Bowling was a passion even into her 80’s. Neva and Howard bowled on mixed leagues in Waco, Texas for many years until poor health ended her bowling. Neva was preceded in death by her Mother and Father, Brother Gene, and Sister Leona. Neva went to Heaven with her Lord and parents leaving behind her beloved husband Howard Hyden, a sister Darlene Clark; and four children, David L. Hyden of Groesbeck, Ron G. Hyden & wife Phyllis of Gastonia, N.C., Carol J. Adams and husband Tommy of Alvin, and daughter, Connie M. Schneider and husband Dennis of Lockhart; 8 grandchildren: Dana Sue Carlile, David Hyden Jr., Christina Stowe, Wesly Hyden, Rhonda Morton, Clint Hyden, Jeffery Schneider and Iris Adams; nine great grandchildren; and one great-great grandchild.