Minnie Lou (Clute) Lummus

Minnie Lou Lummus of Groesbeck passed away Sunday, December 17, 2017 at Providence Hospital in Waco. Visitation will be at Groesbeck Funeral Home on Tuesday, December 19, 2017, from 6:00 to 8:00 P.M. Funeral services will be held at 2:00 P.M. on Wednesday, December 20, 2017, in the Groesbeck Funeral Home Chapel, with Reverend Billy Bob Evans presiding. She will be buried at Lost Prairie Cemetery next to her baby son. Pallbearers are: Memphis Waddle, Eric Shamblin, Brandon Shamblin, Jeff Lummus, Mil Clute and Jamie Clute. Minnie Lou Clute Lummus was a woman of great faith and love. She was born September 20, 1938, in Oakwood, Texas, to parents Millard and Lou Ila Clute. The daughter of a Baptist preacher, she learned early in life to put her trust in the Lord. The Lord welcomed her home in the early morning hours of Sunday, December 17, 2017. Her mother always said that “Minnie never met a stranger,” and her outgoing personality and her love of life drew people to her. The last three days of her life were filled with an intense outpouring of love from family and friends who gathered in her tiny hospital room to sing songs, tell their favorite Minnie stories and pray. Finally, she passed into the next life quietly in the arms of the love of her life, Charles Lummus. Minnie and Charles met at Jewett High School when she was just 14 years old. They fell madly in love and on February 10, 1954, they eloped to Louisiana. They were just 15 and 17. The pair dropped out of school in tenth grade and went to work. Throughout their long marriage, Minnie and Charles worked together at a variety of jobs, including the Mexia Textile Mill and ABrandt Furniture Factory. Later, they bought what became the Lummus Speed Queen Laundromat in Groesbeck. They worked there side by side—16 hours a day, six days a week—for 16 years before retiring to their home in Groesbeck. Minnie and Charles had two children together. After 21 years of marriage, they were ecstatic when Minnie miraculously became pregnant. Sadly, their son, Cal Jr., died at birth on December 15, 1975. But in 1977, another miracle occurred when she gave birth to their daughter, Crala Dawn. Crala immediately became the light of her life, and Minnie devoted herself to ensuring that Crala grew up to be a smart and accomplished young woman who had every opportunity that she had missed in her own life. That light shone even brighter with the birth of Crala’s four children: Madison, Memphis, Landrie and Koda. Minnie loved her grandbabies more than anything and made sure that they wanted for nothing. She and Charles attended every practice, game, recital, or event that they participated in. She sewed their costumes, took their lunches to school and drove them everywhere they needed to go. Most of all, she made sure that they knew that they were loved. That love was returned and in her final hours, they insisted on taking turns lying beside her and holding her. Minnie is preceded in death by her son, Cal, Jr., her parents, Millard and Lou Ila Clute, and her brother, Millard Clute, Jr. She is survived by her husband of 63 years, Charles. Her daughter, Crala, and her husband, Jason Pringle, and her four grandchildren, Madison, Memphis, Landrie and Koda all reside in Groesbeck. She is also survived by her brother, Lowell Clute, and his wife, Karen, of Palestine, her sister, Beverly Freeman, and her husband, Bill, of Sugar Land and a host of nieces and nephews who love their Aunt Minnie.