My big brother, Tacky Webb
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| Ogden, Utah about 1945 |
Squeaky doors….
That’s what old memories are like…that old, squeaky door
that creaks open just a little bit….out comes one memory and soon, it swings
wide and there they all are….some make you giddy, some make you cry and the all
remind you of why you are you.
Martin Hillard Webb was born 10 August 1936 in San Diego,
California to Hillard Vernon “Tex” Webb and Sarah Vernona “Denny” Denning Webb.
He was actually named Hillard Martin
Webb, but the names were inverted on the official birth certificate.
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| Hillard Martin Webb |
As a young military family, there were frequent moves around
the country and the world. In 1939, they
were in Panama on the Panama Canal. My mother used to tell the story of how
eggs were so hard to come by, and being an Idaho ranch girl, she wanted her son
to have fresh eggs. So she hunted them down so that every day, Hillard had that
egg in his diet. Mom also said they didn’t
have many diapers but it was okay because as soon as you would wash one and
hang it on the clothesline, it would dry!
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| Donald Michael Webb at 15 |
First and second grade found Hillard in first and part of
the second grade in Colombia County, Florida, where his brother, Donald Michael
Webb was born January 6, 1943 in Jacksonville, Florida. At Donnie’s birth there
was the complication of Erythroblastosis fetalis, when the mom’s Rh factor and
dad’s Rh factor are not compatible.
Thankfully, and probably in no small measure to a smart nurse mom, he
survived.
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| Hillard, Donnie and Duchess |
On the 14 May 1946, Stanley Denning Webb was born in Ogden, Utah.
After the NAS Corpus Christi opened, Dad was stationed there
for a brief time in 1947 where our brother Stanley passed away 19 Feb 1947 at
the age of 8 months old. My parents were devastated and my mother never really
got over it. At that time, there was
little knowledge of what we now call Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and
she blamed herself and the pediatrician for Stanley’s death. Before I was born
in 1948, she had herself tested for every known disease and condition known to
medical science back then, even for STDs; just to be sure she was healthy
enough to have children. After her experiences with Donnie and then the loss of
Stanley, she wanted to be sure any babies coming after were given the best
chance of survival.
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| Karen Kay Webb at 4 years |
After Stanley’s death Dad was transferred to St. John’s
Newfoundland where Karen Kay Webb (that’s me) was born 22 April 1948. A snowy day, I was told, and Dad was trapped
over in the Officer’s club across from the hospital….where Mom and I were the
only patients in the maternity ward.
It was in Newfoundland where Hillard became Tacky Webb.
There was a comic strip in the newspaper with a long, lanky blonde kid in it
and that pretty much described Tack to a T. After enduring the WWII years in
military towns and schools with a name similar to “Hitler”, Mom said he was
ready for a new nickname! And Tacky he became, kept that name his whole life.
We returned to the US in about 1950. Tack must have liked it
in Newfoundland. When some woman at the border told my dad he could not bring
me in the country without my Dad’s birth certificate (He was born in OK Indian
Land Territory, no birth certificate existed ), Tack and Donnie told her fine,
and picked me up and headed back towards the exit. Sanity prevailed as Dad was standing there as
a Lt Commander in dress uniform and we came on back to Corpus Christi, Texas.
Dad retired in early 1952 and he and mom bought a home on Johanna
Street in Corpus Christi, Texas with just enough land to expand someday (which never happened) and
enough land for a small stable and horses, which did happen. He went to work in welding and they began working
on a new life as a non military family.
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| Wayne Webb 1960? |
On 22 November 1954, Tex and Denny Webb welcomed their
youngest child, Wayne Wesley Webb into the world. With much older siblings and a doting set of
parents, he was a bright, albeit slightly spoiled, blonde baby boy. I remember being at the farm of someone,
possibly the Scotts? And watching that big black car pulling up with my mom
bringing Wayne home from the NAS hospital…we were all so excited! A couple of
years later, I remember that same farm, with Wayne running around in his diaper
and a big chicken chasing after him pecking his butt! So very funny!
I remember another time at this same place....Tack coming home from the Marines to find brother Donnie with long, slicked back hair.....and Tack and Dick Scott (?) holding Donnie down and shaving that hair off with horse clippers!!! Reminds me of hearing my mom say "Donnie Michael!!" in only that tone of voice she could do.
Tack attended several schools in the Corpus Christi area
with the comings and goings of a military family. At one point in school in Flour Bluff, he
ended up graduating from WB Ray High School in 1954.
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| 1951 Ray High School |
Our father, HV Webb, died on 22 November 1955. It was, of course, a life changing event for
all of us in our family. One from which we pretty much never recovered as a family group. My mother worked hard to
take care of us, and did the very best she could do as she dealt with the
heartbreak of her life as she aged. She
adored her kids and her grandchildren even more. She was blessed with my daughter, Darcie who
looks like her, is as smart as she was, and carries that same heart in her. She
also had our Holly, who just brightened the whole house every single day she
walked into her grandmother’s door. And
of course little blonde boys were also her favorites…Leland and Collie. She had one more blonde grandson, Matt, that
she never got to hold, but he is in her heart and I know she watches out for
him.
I was very young when Tack went to Texas A and M. In 1957 he was at Texas Aand I in Kingsville and enlisted
in the US Marines (1957?) and went to San Diego for Basic training. He then was stationed at Camp Lajuene NC in 1
/ 2 Marines. I can remember standing at my mother’s side outside our home on
Johanna Street and hearing a little sound come from her….and her eyes looking
over towards the big intersection there as
Tack came striding across the yard, home from the Marines on leave…..she
was so, so happy. Every time my son, her
grandson, Matt, came home on leave, I would always feel this intense closeness
to my mom, because just like all military moms, it is the moment you live for, watching
those kids coming home safe and sound.
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Tack met the love of his life in high school. Billie Nell Barber. She was born 14 November 1938 to William Collie Barber and Dorothy Nell Smith, in Nueces County, Texas.
Tack and Billie Nell married August 28, 1958, Billie Nell joined Tack as a young Marine wife. I can remember her artistic flair…a tree branch sprayed pink for a Christmas tree!They had one son, Vernon
Collie Webb, born 2 September 1961.
Tack and Billie Nell stepped up to help my mother when I was
in the hospital for several weeks after the birth of my daughter, Darcie,
followed by a hurricane with damage to our home. I will always be forever
grateful to them for the care and love they showed Darcie and Mom at that time.
Tack Webb went Home to our Heavenly Father on 22 October
2014. We were not close as adults, but he was my brother and I pray for his soul,
with the hopes that he lived the life he wanted as he wanted to live it. And I know my Mom and Dad were there to
welcome him….and Mom has two of her sons with her now.
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| Dad and Mom, probably 1934 |
Karen Webb Hachman
October 24 2014
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