100 - Hallie G. Dyess - Albany Cemetery - Albany, TX
N 32° 44.291 W 099° 17.364
14S E 472886 N 3622300
Hallie Graham Dyess was the mother of World War II hero, Lieutenant Colonel William E. Dyess, and she made it to a hundred years in 1992. She and her husband, Judge Richard T. Dyess, are buried behind their son in Albany Cemetery, Albany, TX.
Waymark Code: WM11J1Z
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 10/30/2019
Views: 3
Mr. and Mrs. Dyess share an impressive marble monument with the family name, "Dyess", on the front and back of the centerpiece. It and the two flanking sides are upon a marble base, and out front is a base for a vase or planter. Each has their own side, with these inscriptions:
Father
Richard T.
Jan. 20, 1886
Feb. 18, 1968
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Mother
Hallie G.
Sept. 21, 1891
Feb. 24, 1992
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Judge Richard Dyess, was a prominent area citizen in his own right, and Mrs. Dyess's obituary on her Findagrave page notes that she wasn't some stay-at-home wife. She was born in Oglesby, TX and raised in nearby McGregor, moving to Albany in 1915 after her marriage to Mr. Dyess in McGregor. They were both active in the historic Matthews Memorial Presbyterian Church, and Mrs. Dyess kept active in a multitude of groups and activities. She was a volunteer at the Albany USO Canteen and helped entertain many young service men from Camp Barkley in Abilene. Later, after Camp Barkley closed down and was replaced by an air force base named for her son, she participated in the Officers Wives Club. A passionate gardener, she helped to organize the Albany Garden Club, and some of her own flowers were taken to soldiers at the hospital at Dyess Air Force Base. She was a charter member of the Ladies Auxiliary of the William E. Dyess Post #6523 in Abilene, and was also a member of the Ladies Auxiliary of Anson Post #8929.
She also did work as a seamstress with the Fort Griffin Fandangle. Her obituary assumes that the reader is familiar with the Fandangle. This is a large-scale musical production held in Albany in late June every year, and it has grown to include a cast of over 400 people. Its subject is the settlement and rise of the county, including the establishment of Fort Griffin to the north in 1861, and then the birth of Albany after the fort closed down in 1881. There was a town below the fort, also called "Fort Griffin", "Griffin", or more commonly, "The Flat" or "The Flats", due to its occupying flat land below the bluff occupied by the fort, and it was a fairly crazy place for folks who wanted a saner community. While there is no one single town upon which movies base their depiction of rough-and-tumble towns of the Old West, Fort Griffin could be among those from which Hollywood has drawn inspiration, as it was known as the "Babylon of the Brazos". The likes of Bat Masterson, Lottie Deno, Pat Garrett, Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, John Selman, John Wesley Hardin, John Larn, Big Nose Kate, and Hurricane Bill (and Hurricane Minnie!) spent time there.