Selma Lee (Mccree) Hill

Selma Lee Hill was born in Dallas, Texas on November 16, 1917. She died in Plano, Texas on July 3, 2017 – just a few months shy of what would have been her 100th birthday. She leaves behind 3 daughters (Sylvia Jean Stanley, Patricia Ann Doliana, Vicki Hill), 1 son-in-law (Michael Riedel), 10 grandchildren (Sheila Rai Allen, Ricky Glynn Stanley, Paul A. Stanley, David Douglas Brown, Teresa Doliana Miller, Carolyn Doliana Rothschild, Dina Doliana Marks, Joseph M. Doliana, Richard Ryan Riedel, Andrew Philip Riedel), 18 great-grandchildren and 10 great-great-grandchildren. But oh! What a life of loving and giving she leaves to those who remember her and celebrate her long life today! Selma’s story really begins with her parents. Fred McCree was born in Alabama in 1889, but moved with his family to Texas when Fred was a very young child. He was the second oldest of 8 children who lived to adulthood. His home life fell apart when his mother died in Forney in 1909; Fred was just 19 at the time. The responsibility for all those children – the youngest was just 2 years old – was too much for Fred’s father. Alfred McCree deserted the family, leaving the older siblings to work and raise their younger siblings themselves. Sallie Gilstrap was born in Mississippi in 1888. She came to Texas in a covered wagon as a young girl. Her father was 66 years old when she was born. They followed the children of her father’s first marriage to Texas, as he was dying of tuberculosis and needed their care. She was 6 years old when her father died; her mother succumbed to tuberculosis the following year. The older children from the first marriage felt they could not care for Sallie and her two brothers from the second marriage, so they called on Baptist minister R.C. Buckner, who had started an orphan’s home in Dallas in 1879. Sallie grew to adulthood at Buckner Orphan’s Home in east Dallas. Fred McCree met Sallie Gilstrap while she was living at Buckner. They courted for several years before marrying on January 1, 1913. They were a serious young couple, determined to surround their own children with the love that had been ripped from their own family lives at such tender ages. Fred and Sallie had two children. Irene was born in 1915, while Selma was born 2 ½ years later. Shortly after Selma was born, Fred bought property in the small community of Lisbon, which was later incorporated into the city of Dallas. There he built a house with his own hands. But they didn’t stay there long. Fred got a job in Fort Worth, so their small family moved there in the early 1920’s. Meanwhile, Fred’s sister and her children, who had fallen on hard times, moved into the little house in Lisbon. Selma remembered the Fort Worth years fondly. She started school there. Her parents took the children to picnics, to parades, to “new-fangled” picture shows in the parks. Doting father Fred took picture after picture of his two young daughters. He spent many hours in his shop building toys for Christmas surprises. And he personally decorated the Christmas tree after they went to sleep on Christmas Eve, so that it would be aglow with candles when they came into the living room on Christmas morning. Sallie taught her daughters the skills of homemaking—sewing, mending, washing, cooking, growing vegetables, and cleaning. Theirs was a strict household. Sallie had been brought up in a Baptist orphanage, and there was never a deck of playing cards in their home during Sallie’s lifetime. But the Depression came along. Fred and Sallie helped friends and neighbors whenever they could. Sometimes they purchased two bags of groceries and shared one with neighbors who were out of work. One year, a neighbor with 4 young children was killed in an industrial accident. Fred and Sallie told their girls that these children, now without a father and means of support, would not have a Christmas unless someone else helped. So, Selma and Irene received a single doll that year, while Fred spent many hours building toys for the children who had lost their father. Eventually the Depression hit Selma’s family as well. Fred lost his job in Fort Worth, and then the home he had purchased. The family moved back to the little house in Lisbon about the time Selma was starting high school. At that time, the nearest high school was Sunset, 7 miles away. So, 14-year-old Selma and her 16-year-old sister Irene took the streetcar (which required a transfer along the way) to school each day. Just imagine a parent of today putting a 14-year-old girl on public transportation for a 7 mile trip to school! But it was standard then; children grew up fast and were expected to behave responsibly. Selma was a quiet, studious young woman. She had a picture memory; schoolwork came easy for her. It wasn’t unusual for her to help her classmates or her older sister with their schoolwork as well. In fact, Selma graduated from Sunset in 1934 at the age of 16 – just 5 months after her older sister graduated. While attending Sunset, Selma met a teen boy her age with flaming red hair. While his family called him by his middle name, Wilson, most friends just called him “Red”. Like Selma’s parents, Red Hill had experienced a difficult childhood. His father died 6 weeks before he was born. Red’s mother remarried when Red was 5 years old and he eventually had two half-sisters. But Red was always the reminder of his mother’s first marriage. At age 14, with the Depression in full bloom, Red’s step-father told him it was time to quit school, get a job, and pay rent to help support the family. Thomas Wilson “Red” Hill and Selma Lee McCree married on August 23, 1936, shortly after Red’s 18th birthday. They would be together for 76 years, until God called him home November 28, 2012 at the age of 94. Red Hill craved the kind of loving family that Selma had experienced. Yes, he had been fed and clothed as a child, but he had also been passed around – from his young widowed mother to his grandparents or his aunts. He had virtually no contact with his father’s family, as a family squabble had caused his father’s death. He looked to Selma and her parents as the model upon which he wished to build his family and his adult life. Red Hill was a hard worker. He worked during the day and studied by night so he could qualify for a better job and be in a better position to support a family. Their first daughter, Sylvia Jean Hill, was born in 1938, while their second daughter, Patricia Ann Hill, was born in 1940. Red did not want his wife to work; he wanted Selma to be at home to give their two daughters the type of loving home life that she had experienced. But World War II intervened. As a young married father working at a defense plant, Red Hill had a military deferment. He could have avoided military service, but his sense of duty to his countrymen won out. In 1944, Red Hill joined the U.S. Navy. The next two years was a trying time for the young family. As he trained within the US, Selma and her two young daughters followed him when they could and lived with family in Dallas when they could not. When he was being shipped to Honolulu to join his ship, Selma left the two girls with their grandmother and rode the train alone to see him one last time. In her later years, she spoke of what an emotional experience that was – leaving her children behind to see her husband, knowing there was a possibility that she would never see him again! Red was assigned to the USS Napa, a supply ship used to transport troops. While the ship had been hit at Iwo Jima, it was in Honolulu for repairs when he joined it, and fortunately the ship was never hit again. But it was by no means an easy time. He told stories of some of the starving, desperate people he saw in the Philippines and in Indo-China. Certainly, there were stories he shared only with Selma, which she kept hidden close to her heart. They wrote letters to encourage one another, and they both saved those letters and re-read them repeatedly. Today, those letters survive – a suitcase full of letters of young love, hopes, dreams and fears. But Selma was a very private person. She asked that her children not read those letters during her lifetime. Her wish has been honored. Red was released from the Navy in 1946. Housing was in short supply for returning service members and their families, so for a time Red, Selma and their two daughters lived in a Quonset hut on the grounds of the VA Hospital in Dallas. War veterans had top priority for any new houses being built. Red’s uncle was a carpenter and knew of a house being started. Red quickly contacted the builder and secured a two-bedroom house on Overton Road in South Oak Cliff as their first owned home. Sylvia and Pat started elementary school while Red worked as a tool and dye maker and Selma was a homemaker. They decided to have one more child – after all, what man doesn’t want to have a son? They did have a third child, but it was a third daughter, not a son. Vicki Lynn Hill was born in 1951. They loved all of their daughters and gave them many happy memories. Sylvia and Pat both graduated from South Oak Cliff High School while living at that little house on Overton Road. Sylvia married and moved away during that time. Red Hill joined the Mason’s in the late 1940’s. He later joined the Scottish Rite and the Shrine. He became a bugler in the Hella Temple Drum & Bugle Corps. Selma and Red spent many enjoyable hours over the years at parties and events with other Dallas-area Shriners. In the late 1950’s, Selma’s father, Fred McCree, and Red Hill made a deal. Fred would purchase a trailer on a nearby lake, while Red would purchase a motor boat. This would allow them both to go fishing, a hobby they both enjoyed. Fred was retired, so he would sometimes spend a week or more at the trailer on Lake Whitney, while Red, Selma and Vicki would head to the lake for the weekend. In 1959, they moved a few miles south to a house on Red Bird Lane in the new Singing Hills subdivision. Pat married and moved during this time, leaving just Red, Selma and young daughter Vicki living there. Selma learned to drive in the early 1960’s, while they were living on Red Bird Lane. She was fearful of the parallel parking requirement for the driver’s license test. Her dear friend, Loraine Wilson, came over one day and dragged a metal trash can into the street beside the house. Then Loraine stood in the street, a few yards away and told Selma to practice parking between the trash can and Loraine until she got it right. Selma was terrified that she would hit her friend, but Loraine assured her that she would not allow that to happen! Selma passed her driving test on the first try. When asked what song they associated with Selma Hill, her children and grandchildren were quick to name the same song – the lullaby that she sang to every one of them— “Toora Loora Loora”, the Irish lullaby that will remain forever in their hearts. In 1966, they moved to DeSoto, where Vicki completed high school. By now Red and Selma were making retirement plans. Red had frequently changed jobs, so he had no pension to look forward to. But friends they had met in Whitney had told him about the Santa Fe Railroad shop in Cleburne. Move to Whitney, they said, we can get you on at the shop. With 10 years of employment, you will qualify for a pension. So Red and Selma bought a vacant lot at Lake Whitney and started building a home. LITERALLY, board by board, nail by nail, building a home. It was a slow process, as they could only work on the home on weekends. They first built the garage in the late 1960’s to have a place to store building supplies. Bit by bit, they built a two-bedroom, 1 bath house adjacent to the garage. They moved there permanently in 1973, and Red went to work at the Santa Fe Railroad. After 5 years of building a house, they weren’t quite ready to quit. They quickly realized that a 2-bedroom, 1-bath house was fine for a retirement home, but it left no place for children or grandchildren when they visited. So, the builders went back to work and added a den, a third bedroom and a second bath. But then there was the back porch; they decided to enclose it and install a hot tub. The lot next door went on the market. They purchased that as well, enlarging the yard. The lot next door had a 1954 vintage 2-bedroom trailer on it. Rather than sell or haul off the old trailer, they built a roof over it and a large playroom the length of the trailer in front of it. So, the little 2-bedroom, 1-bath retirement home on 1 lot had now progressed to 5 bedrooms and 3 baths spread over 2 lots! With Red working at the Santa Fe Railroad and all their children now grown and living on their own, Selma decided it was her turn to become more active in the community. If a road needed fixing, she contacted the county commissioners, who knew her by name. If someone was setting off fireworks illegally, she contacted the local sheriff, who knew her by name. If she couldn’t get something done at the county level, she contacted her state representative, who knew her by name. Selma started writing a weekly column for the local newspaper. She reported on local events and issues. She told about her frequent trips with Red to various state parks around Texas. She gathered stories of local history and legends to share with her readers. But her biggest passion was Fort Graham. In the mid-1800’s, the U.S. had constructed a series of forts to protect local settlers from the Indians. The best known of these is Fort Worth, founded in 1849. Also founded that year was Fort Graham in Hill County, located just a mile or two from where Red and Selma were living. In 1936, the Civilian Conservation Corps had re-built Fort Graham as a memorial to the original settlement. When Lake Whitney was built, water surrounded the old fort. Later, when the level of the lake was permanently raised, the old stone fort was sometimes almost completely submerged by fluctuating lake levels. Selma was a person who got things done; she wanted the old fort moved to higher ground and re-built, then turned into a local history museum. As a writer for the local newspaper, she was in a perfect position to advocate for Fort Graham preservation. The fort stood on land belonging to the Corps of Engineers, so she had to work through many government roadblocks to accomplish her task. But she succeeded, and in 1983 Fort Graham was moved and re-opened as an area museum. Selma was twice honored as Lake Citizen of the Year for her efforts. Even today, the Wikipedia entry for Fort Graham credits Selma Hill for preservation of the old fort. A final honor for her efforts on behalf of the old fort came later when then-Governor Rick Perry named her a “Yellow Rose of Texas”. This honor is bestowed on women who have taken extraordinary steps to preserve the history of the Lone Star State. Today yellow roses lie on her casket, in tribute to the passing of this “Yellow Rose”. Red Hill retired at age 65 in 1983. Since he had been working in Cleburne and Selma was so active in the Whitney area, she was far better known locally than he was. More than once he was introduced as “Selma Hill’s husband”. That was a difficult role for a traditional head-of-household to accept. Selma chose to retire from the limelight so they could enjoy their retirement as a couple, with one’s accomplishments not overshadowing the other. But that didn’t mean that Selma retired from community service. For years she was the local go-to person when an elderly neighbor needed a ride to the doctor. She visited in local nursing homes. She shared the fruits of her garden with those who could no longer grow fresh vegetables themselves. She comforted the sick and befriended the lonely. Just as her father and mother had shared their groceries with neighbors during the Depression, just as she and her sister had done without toys so that others less fortunate could have toys, she gave of herself to her community for as long as she could. In 2011, Red Hill fell and broke his ankle. While the bones mended, he was never able to walk more than a few steps again. Selma could no longer see well enough to drive, so Vicki moved them both to Plano. Selma moved in with Vicki, while Red recuperated in an assisted living center. But Selma and Red wanted to be together. Finally, in March 2012, Red’s health had improved enough that they moved together to Cottonwood Estates, an independent living center in Plano. They celebrated their 76th wedding anniversary there in 2012. After Red passed away in November 2012, Selma moved back in with Vicki. She stayed there for the rest of her life. Selma Hill collected angels. Angels, angels, bands of angels! She loved looking for angels at flea markets and estate sales. Family and friends bestowed her with angels. In Revelations, Chapter 5, we find: Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. In a loud voice they were saying: “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise! In Selma’s home you were always surrounded by angels, surrounded by love and rejoicing. Selma was always fiercely independent. Not only did she want to do things for herself – she wanted to do things for others. Even in her late 90’s, she prepared her own meals and did her own laundry. Sometimes Vicki would be away for a couple of hours and receive a text from her husband, Michael, “Your mother is sweeping the kitchen” or “Your mother is dusting the French doors”. It was very hard for Selma to simply sit and do nothing. It frustrated her that pain in her body limited her from doing all of the things that she wanted to do. Her mind remained active and ready to take care of every chore that needed doing, but her body was slowly failing. She hated to use a walker or any other shortcut to help the elderly. She was even able to get in and out of a bathtub, completely unassisted, the week she died. Selma died quickly. On the morning of July 3, she was being prepared for a surgical procedure that seemed reasonable, given her physical health and her mental agility. But something suddenly caused intense pain about 4 hours before the planned procedure; within 2 ½ hours, she was gone. She knew that surgery was her only remaining option, and she didn’t make it long enough to try. Still, Selma was talking to the nurses and family up to the very last minutes of her life. It was tremendously important to her that SHE maintain her faculties and control of every aspect of her life. She could do that. She left this world on her terms, leaving a legacy of love, of family, and of striving each day to make this world a better place. Her daughters followed in her footsteps. Sylvia has been active in various Masonic organizations for many years and makes and donates toys for children at the Scottish Rite Hospital. Pat is engaged in her local community in Florida, including serving often as an election judge. Vicki has helped build a nonprofit for adults with autism in Plano. It is written in 2nd Timothy, chapter 4, I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. Let us pray: Heavenly Father, Your infinite love for us has chosen angels in heaven and appointed them to be our guides during our time on earth. Accept our thanks for so great a blessing. Grant that we may experience the assistance of our protectors in all our necessities. And to our holy, loving angels and guides, watch over us with all the tenderness of your angelic hearts. Keep us always on the way that leads to heaven, and cease not to pray for us until we have attained our final destiny. Today, Selma has her crown. Today, she is reunited with her loving husband, Red, and her doting parents, Fred and Sallie. Today she is free from pain. Her children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great grandchildren, as well as friends and family, mourn her passing. But they also remember with admiration and love a life well lived. Family plus community – a legacy of love. Learned from her parents, passed to her children. Rest in peace, Selma Hill. You now stand with the angels after finishing your mission on this earth. Selma was preceded in death by her husband Thomas Wilson "Red" Hill, sister Irene Hamilton and nephew John Hamilton. A visitation will be held for Selma at Allen Family Funeral Options Thursday, July 6 from 6-8 pm. A funeral service will be held at Allen Family Funeral Options Friday, July 7 at 9:00 am. Following, will be a burial at DFW National Cemetery at 11:15 am.