HOSKINS, Mary Alice (Puckett) (Null) - b. January 1, 1923 - d. November 10, 2010

[patyrn]

Mary Alice (Puckett) (Null) Hoskins, youngest child of Eddie Clarence and Mary Augusta (Myers) Puckett, passed away Wednesday, November 10, 2010 at Pleasant Valley Manor in Sedan, Kansas.  She was born January 1, 1923 in Elgin, Kansas and moved with her family to Sedan in 1929.

She attended local schools and graduated from Sedan High School in 1942.  She was in Band and Drum Corps at Sedan High School and taught drum lessons while attending there.  After graduation, she moved to Wichita, Kansas to work.  There she learned the upholstery trade and worked at Innes Department Store doing furniture and later Johnny Boklage Automotive Shop where she liked doing interiors of autos and trucks.

She met Richard Warren Null in a small diner not far from where she worked, and on July 31, 1948, they were married in Wichita, Kansas.  To this union, one daughter, Freida Marie, was born.  They later divorced in 1953.  She returned to Sedan with her daughter in 1954 and went to work at the Sedan City Hospital as a Nurse's Aide.  She worked at this position for 15 years when health reasons were going to force her to quit when they developed the Ward Clerk position and asked her to write the program and train staff for the position.  She was the pioneer of this at the hospital, and to this day, some of the programs she wrote are in effect.  She worked another 15 years as a Ward Clerk, retiring in 1984.

In 1956, she met Alfred Eugene Hoskins, and on May 15, 1958, they were married in Sedan, Kansas.  Together they made a life in Sedan, and he also worked at the Sedan Hospital.  They enjoyed doing crafts together and attending several craft shows a year selling things they made.  They were married 49 years when he passed away on May 17, 2007.

Upon Mary's retirement, she was free to do things she enjoyed best: working on family history with her daughter, Freida; quilting; crocheting; reading, which she dearly loved to do; and crafts.  As her health failed, she moved to Pleasant Valley Manor and lived where she found many friends she had known all her life.  She truly loved all the staff there and spoke of them often to her family.

She is survived by her daughter, Freida Wells and husband, Leon of Grenola, Kansas; stepsons, Bruce Hoskins Sr. and wife, LaVerne of Houston, Texas and Glenn Hoskins and wife, Veronica of Baytown, Texas; grandson, Robert Null and wife, Paula of El Dorado, Kansas; step-grandchildren, Patsy, Bruce Jr., Brandy, Priscilla, Marcia, Renee, and Briyawana; seven great-grandchildren; and three great-great-grandchildren.

Graveside services will be held Saturday, November 13, 2010 at 11:00 a.m. at Greenlawn Cemetery in Grenola, Kansas.  Mike Graham of Harry Hynes Memorial Hospice will officiate.  Family and friends may call on Friday, November 12, 2010 from 9:00 a.m. until 9:00 p.m. at the David W. Barnes Funeral Home, 209 N. Douglas, Sedan , Kansas.  In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to Harry Hynes Memoral Hospice, 2404 W. 8th, Coffeyville, Kansas 67337.

(taken from the David W. Barnes Funeral Home website)