Memorials › Mary Clystia Hobbs Garrison

Mary Clystia Hobbs Garrison

6 Aug 1920 – 22 Sep 2009

Birth6 Aug 1920
Death22 Sep 2009
CemeterySolano Cemetery
Solano , Harding County , New Mexico , USA
Added byJason Roth on 20 Sep 2025
FaGhttps://www.findagrave.com/memorial/42511185

Bio

Mary Clystia Garrison passed from this life Sept. 22, 2009, at the age of 89 years, one month and 16 days. She was born Aug. 6, 1920, in Brady, Texas, the oldest child of Mary Clystia Frost and Raymond Garrett Hobbs. When she was two years old, the Hobbs family came to New Mexico in a covered wagon, trailing a herd of livestock, and settled on a ranch homestead near Coyote in Linclon County. Mary C., as she was known throughout her life by family and friends, grew through her childhood as a pioneer rancher's daughter. She rode horseback to school at Ancho and later to school at White Oaks. She and her sister Ray were often invited after school at White Oaks into the home of Susan McSween Barber, who offered them fresh-baked cookies and visited with them in her garden and flower-filled yard. Mary C.'s mother taught her all of the skills of housekeeping and homemaking, including cooking great food on a woodstove and fine needlework such as embroidery, crochet, tatting and quilting. She practiced these skills throughout her lifetime and became widely known for her fine food preparation and needle-working skills. She graduated from the New Mexico Public Schools in 1935 and, on Sept. 29, 1937, married Joseph Woodrow Garrison of Centerpoint. They lived on the Garrison homestead at Centerpoint and to them five sons were born: Larry Wayne in 1938, Hadley Rand in 1940, Billie Martin in 1942, Kenneth Bart in 1944, and Earnest Ward in 1946. Joseph W. served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, while Mary C. and the boys lived near her parents at Carrizozo. After the war, they returned to the Garrison homestead near Gran Quivira, where Joseph W. farmed and Mary C. made a home for all her family. Their son Hadley Rand died in childhood in 1949. When the droughty times of the 1950s destroyed the Garrison farm dryland pinto bean crop several years in a row, the family moved to El Paso, Texas for a few years, where J. W. took work as a truck driver. He continued this work for the next 28 years. The family moved back to New Mexico in 1953 and lived at Gran Quivira, then Adelino, Bosque Farms and the South Valley of Albuquerque. During these years, Mary C. continued to be a homemaker and also worked as a cook and cafeteria manager in the public schools. From early adulthood, Mary C. was a devout member of the Assembly of God church. She later became a teacher, missionary and ordained minister in the New Mexico Assemblies of God, and for many years conducted Vacation Bible Schools and "Kids' Crusades" at the AoG campgrounds in Mountainair, at various AoG churches throughout the state, and among the chapterhouses of the Navajos, at the Mescalero and Jicarilla Apache reservations and at many reservations in Oklahoma. She and her close friend and fellow minister Ruth Droll, of Milan, ministered to young people all over the state for 18 years. In later years, Mary C. continued her ministry and counseling among friends and neighbors during the 40 years she lived in Harding County. In 1969, after her children were grown and living elsewhere, Mary C. and Joseph moved to Harding County, where he drove a truck for SEC Corporation until his retirement in 1979, and she continued making a home which was the center of an ever-expanding family of children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She loved being in the countryside again after years in the city, and both she and Joseph reveled in the joys of gardening and hunting and being close to the outdoor life which had always been so important to both of them. She became a member of the Solano Homemakers Club and served for many years as the club's historian. She canned and preserved foods from garden and orchard and won hundreds of blue ribbons and Grand Champion ribbons at the Harding County fair and the New Mexico State Fair for her pen and ink drawings, needlework, photography, floral arrangements and canned foods and preserves. During those years, she bought a Bell Ranch horse named Smokey and loved to ride around the canyonland and rimrocks, exploring God's wonders in the Canadian River canyonlands. A few years after Joseph W. retired, in 1982, he and Mary C. bought the big two-story double adobe home at the corner of 3rd and Brown streets in Mosquero, where they lived for the rest of their lives. "Woody," as local people called him, and Mary C. enjoyed keeping a large garden every year and she planted and nurtured large flowerbeds around their home. She joined the Mosquero Community Church and continued as a member the rest of her life. She and a neighbor and good friend, the late Cecile Crosthwait organized the Mosquero Homesteaders senior citizens' group and worked for years to establish the current Homesteaders' Senior Center and Mealsite. She was involved in the first Mosquero Cowboy Camp Meeting and photographed and created annual photo albums of the MCCM meetings every year including the one of July 2009. Mary C. and Joseph W. celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in 1987 surrounded by their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Altogether, they shared 61 years of marriage before Joseph passed on in 1999. Mary C. was also preceded in death by her parents, Raymond G. and Mary Clystia Frost Hobbs, two sisters, Ray Brock and Helen Major, and two brothers, Ward Hobbs and Jack Hobbs. Her sons Hadley Rand and Billie Martin passed on in 1949 and 2007, and two grandchildren, Stephen Garrison and Bowden Woodrow Garrison, also passed on before her. She is survived by her sons Larry W. and wife Wanda of Raton, Kenneth B. of Mosquero and Earnest W. and wife Mary Helen of Solano. Mary C. is also survived by a sister, Martha McKinley and husband Don of Tucumcari, and two brothers, Joseph and wife Nedra Hobbs of Carrizozo and Colin Hobbs of Valera, Texas. One granddaughter, Mary Clystia Garrison, carries on the name which has come down through generations in the family. She is also survived by 13 grandchildren and numerous great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren. She touched the lives of many, many people during her 89 years on this earth, and her legacy and heritage will live on in their hearts and minds. Funeral services for Mary C. Garrison will be held at the Mosqeuro Community Church, followed by burial in the family plot at the Solano Cemetery, next to Joseph W. Funeral arrangements are being handled by Rogers Mortuary of Las Vegas, N.M.

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