Eddie Jo Halford Miller passed peacefully at Covenant Hospital in Lubbock, TX on Oct. 31, 2024. The visitation was at Hudman Funeral Home in Post Monday, Nov. 4, 2024. Services was conducted by Reverend Sam Espinosa at the Post Methodist Church on Tuesday, Nov. 5, with Interment to follow at Terrace Cemetery under the direction of Hudman Funeral Home.
She was born in San Luis Obispo, CA on Dec. 29, 1946, and was named for two of her dad’s navy buddies named “Eddie” and “Joe”. Her father worked as a mechanic, but times were lean as evidenced by her birth certificate listing her mother’s mailing address as “Sleep Off the Highway Motor Lodge”.
The family soon moved to Lubbock where her dad worked in a body shop briefly and then moved the family to New Home and later to their farm where her parents, Luke and Gennie, would spend the rest of their lives.
After recovering from childhood rheumatic fever Eddie Jo attended New Home school until she graduated and participated in the usual rural high school activities such as basketball, twirling and annual staff. It is hard to believe today, but her senior class only had six or seven students. During this time the family’s home church was the New Home Baptist church but Eddie Jo participated in youth activities at other community churches and acted as a substitute piano player when needed at the Baptist, Methodist and Mount Zion churches.
Eddie Jo attended Texas Tech and received a BA in History and English in 1969. After graduation she worked in purchasing at Lubbock State School and later moved to the purchasing department at Texas Tech. While working at Tech she met and later married a graduate student just out of the Army.
Eddie Jo and Joe were married at the New Home Baptist Church and left immediately after the reception for PA where Joe had a teaching job at Clarion University. The couple immensely enjoyed their time there and for years afterward would visit and take trips with friends from the School of Business faculty.
Wanting to be closer to family, the couple moved to the ranch in Northern Garza County where Eddie Jo would spend the rest of her life. When needed, she would help with ranch work and did almost all the branding. While she had no interest in riding, she liked horses but especially loved their dogs.
She also loved helping with activities for kids, especially those her son Cameron’s age. She was a Tiger Cub den mother, helped with the large vacation bible schools at the Methodist Church, and hauled endless loads of kids from school to the church for the Wednesday afterschool music program.
For several years she acted as a substitute teacher at Post and Southland schools. She was disappointed when health problems required her to stop teaching around 2010.
She was a member of a group called Caprock Photographers and liked helping with exhibits here and in Lubbock. She even surprised herself to discover that she had considerable expertise at hand tinting black and white images and produced several award-winning photographs.
Eddie Jo suffered from dementia much longer than many people realized. It began with some subtle changes in temperament followed by forgetfulness and then confusion with each of these symptoms increasing as time passed. However, even in the last few months she could sometimes carry on with what might appear to be a normal conversation. Early on she was somewhat aware of these changes, found them frustrating and expressed a desire to hide them to the extent she could.
Eddie Jo was preceded in death by her farther, Luther Dee Halford, her mother, Lenna Genevieve Halford Cole, and her brother Gary. She is survived by her husband Joe, of Post and son Cameron Dee Miller, his wife Janell and grandsons Cason and Casey of Manlius, New York.
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