Holly Anne Hughes' Obituary
Holly Anne Hughes, 58, died peacefully at home after a five-year battle with breast cancer. Born August 7, 1956, in Terrell, Texas, Holly was raised in Kaufman and Seven Points, Texas. She graduated as salutatorian in the Class of 1974 at Kemp High School in Kemp, Texas, where she was an officer in the drill team and performed in the school band, playing both coronet and flute. She successfully competed in several east Texas beauty pageants. After attending Henderson County Junior College for two years, she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas, in 1977. During and after her college days, she worked as a reporter and editor for the Cedar Creek Pilot in east Texas. After brief sojourns in Santa Barbara, California, and Atlanta, Georgia, she returned to Texas, where she worked as an executive assistant for Gifford Hill & Company and earned a Masters of Business Administration degree from the University of Texas at Arlington in 1986. After completing her advanced degree work, she worked as a commercial real estate appraiser in the Dallas/Fort Worth metropolitan areas until 1995 when she and her family re-located to Germantown, Tennessee. She became active in the Adult Choir and the Women’s Guild at Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Germantown, in the Germantown High School Band Boosters club, in her sons’ Scouting activities, and in the Southwind Garden Club. Before her disease was discovered, she began work on a Foreign Language degree program at the University of Memphis. She particularly enjoyed Italian and participated in a three-week immersion program at the University of Bologna in Bologna, Italy. She traveled extensively; she abhorred organized tours (particularly bus tours), preferring to strike off on her own. She enjoyed singing, attending operas and concerts, water skiing, scuba diving, gardening, needlepoint, knitting, and bridge. She is survived by her husband, Ron Kwoka, and her sons, Jim and John Kwoka, who she considered her finest achievement. She is also survived by her parents, John and Mary Hughes, her sister, Susan Custer, her brother, Russell Hughes, and scores of friends. Other relatives from both the Dallas area and the Baltimore area, her husband’s hometown, will attend the funeral services. Friends and family will remember her as an over-achiever who was always the first to volunteer. She lived life at full speed without a moment to waste. On vacations, her motto was “We can sleep when we get back”. She is beloved, and will be missed, by all who knew her.The visitation will be between 5:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. on Sunday, March 8, and the funeral Mass will be at 11:00 a.m. on Monday, March 9, both at Our Lady of Perpetual Help at 8151 Poplar Avenue in Germantown.The family asks that, in lieu of flowers, donations be made to either The West Institute for Cancer Research or Project Outreach. The Institute is the research arm of the West Clinic where Holly received her oncology treatment during the past five years; Project Outreach is a non-denominational, non-profit organization serving impoverished families in Fayette County. Both are 501(c)(3) organizations. Donations to the former should be sent to 100 N. Humphreys Boulevard, Memphis, Tennessee 38120; donations to the latter should be sent to 9183 Sycamore Creek Cove, Germantown, Tennessee 38139.Funeral arrangements are entrusted to Memorial Park Funeral Home and Cemetery, 5668 Poplar Ave. Memphis, TN 38119,”Behind the Stone Wall.”
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