Yvonne Atwood

Yvonne Hogue Atwood, 95, of Texas City, passed peacefully in her sleep on Monday, July 26, 2021, at Elmcroft Assisted Living.  Born on June 4, 1926 in Center, Texas, but growing up in Hemphill, Texas, she lived an amazingly long and healthy life.

Visitation will be at 10:00a.m., and the service at 11:00a.m., on Thursday, August 12 at Emken Linton Funeral Chapel, 5100 Emmett F. Lowry Expressway, Texas City.

Yvonne’s mother passed away giving birth to the last of five children.  Dad Johnie was left providing for the kids on a sawmill worker's wages.  The kids learned to do everything around the house, becoming extremely resourceful and self sufficient.

Yvonne moved to League City as a teenager to work as a waitress at the Tea Garden on Hwy 3 in League City, alongside her sister Calla Mae.  Yvonne met Fred there and they married in 1945.  They were very close eyewitnesses to the Texas City Disaster in 1947 but somehow escaped serious injury.  Yvonne had a day care center in the family home from 1952 until 1972.  She later became a real estate agent for Wyatt Realty in Texas City.

She was a terrific homemaker and cook (as were / are many others on both sides of the family) and loved to please with her creations.  She and Fred kept a big garden in the back yard, and had pecan and fig trees.  They shrimped together in Galveston Bay, keeping a deep freeze and bellies full of shrimp.

Yvonne and her sisters grew up singing, and Yvonne never stopped.  She could spontaneously sing harmony, as could her sole surviving sibling Gladys.  Yvonne sang Jimmy Rodgers’ “Waiting for a Train” - complete with the yodeling - a week before her passing.  Music always uplifted her.  She was always singing songs from the ‘30’s on, many learned from her dad Johnie singing around the house.  Some had rather racy innuendo.  Despite her being sometimes difficult for the Elmcroft staff, one of them told me she had her caregivers singing “Frankie and Johnnie” in the corridors.

She is preceded in death by her parents, Johnie Hogue and Lida Belle Dubose Hogue; husband of 61 years, Fred R. Atwood Jr.; siblings Calla Mae Brooks, Katherine Byrd and L. J. Hogue.

She is survived by sons Arlon Kent Atwood (Paula) of Texas City and Jerry Atwood of Houston; sister Gladys Flowers of Porter; granddaughters Anita Atwood (Courtney) and Pamela Wirth (Cameron) of Texas City; great grandchildren Devyn Watts and Dillon Watts (Courtney); great great granddaughter Francesca Watts of Texas City; and great grandsons Gregory “AJ” Halstead and Jacob Halstead of Texas City.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that you consider making a donation in Yvonne’s honor to your favorite charity.