Martell Hilburn

Martell Hilburn, 72, of Woodway, passed away Wednesday, March 15, 2006 at a local hospital.

Services will be at 1 p.m., Saturday at the First Baptist Church of Waco with Dr. R. Scott Walker and Dr. Winfred Moore officiating. A reception with the family will follow the service at the church. A private graveside service will be held earlier in the morning at the Oakwood Cemetery with Dr. Daniel B. McGee and Dr. Herbert H. Reynolds officiating.

The family will receive visitors from 6 to 8 p.m. on Friday, March 17, at the OakCrest Funeral Home, 4520 Bosque Boulevard.

Mrs. Hilburn was born July 7, 1933 in Ringgold, Louisiana, the third child of James Roy and Oma (Hall) Beard. The family later moved to the Shreveport-Bossier City area where she subsequently graduated from Bossier City High School in 1951. She and her husband, Dr. Glenn O. Hilburn, were married on June 18, 1953 in Bossier City, La., at the Barksdale Baptist Church. Born to that union were four children, two who have preceded her in death, Ellen Faye and Vickie Lynne Hilburn.

Mrs. Hilburn was a homemaker, deeply dedicated to her family as wife, mother, and grandmother. She appreciated the beauty and sounds of nature, and for a time, was active in several garden clubs. She particularly enjoyed watching and listening to screech owls that returned annually to an owl box in the backyard to lay their eggs and hatch their young.

In her earlier years she was a faithful Sunday School teacher for pre-school children at the First Baptist Church of Waco.

She is survived by her husband, Dr. Glenn O. Hilburn, longtime professor of religion at Baylor University, and two sons, Jeffrey G. Hilburn and wife, Nancy of Montgomery, Al., and Kelly Hilburn of Woodway. She is also survived by four grandchildren, Sean Andrew Hilburn, Haley Marie Hilburn, Taylor Elizabeth Hilburn, and Dylan Patrick Hilburn; a brother-in-law, Donald A. Driskell of Portland, Me.; a niece, Deborah Kay Vincent, and a nephew, James Edward Flowers.

The family would like to express deep appreciation to her family physician, Dr. John W. Speckmiear, and to the pulmonologists and nursing staff of Providence Hospital ICU who provided exceptional professional care during the final weeks of her life.

Honorary pallbearers for her memorial service will be the faculty and spouses of the Department of Religion, Baylor University.

Besides floral expressions, memorials may be made to the Glenn O. Hilburn Endowed Graduate Research Scholarship Fund in Religion, Baylor University, One Bear Place #97050 Waco, TX 76798-7050, or to a charity of choice.

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