Jane B. Thurman

2nd Lt. Millie Jane Broome died May 9, 2018, at the age of 95.  She was born in rural Mississippi and grew up in a small Arkansas town. 

Visitation will be from 7:00 to 8:00 pm on Friday, May 18, 2018 at The Hamil Family Funeral Home, 6449 Buffalo Gap Road, Abilene, Texas.  Graveside services will be at 10:00 am on Saturday, May 19th at Elmwood Memorial Park.

When Jane (she was never a ‘Millie’) left Warren High School In 1940 at 17, Americans were caught between the dregs of the Great Depression and World War II.  Women of her class were housewives and mothers or maiden aunts or spinsters.  As she wondered about her future, she saw a Look Magazine cover photograph of a nurse.  The nurse wore a starched white cap, starched white uniform, white stockings and white shoes. There was no more wondering about her future.

Jane entered nursing school in Little Rock and graduated three years later.  She joined the US Army Nurse Corps in March, 1945.  She met and married her husband, 1st Lt. Hubert E. Houston, one of her patients, and they raised two children, Carol Ann and David Ross.  David became the father of Jane’s beloved and only grandchild, Willis Ira Houston.

Jane moved to Abilene in 1947 and retired in 1984 after 41 years as a Registered Nurse.

Jane’s late husband, Dr. George D. Thurman, was a distinguished and respected physician in Abilene for 60 years.

Jane was loved and respected by everyone who knew her.  She is survived by her son and grandson, her nephew Ira E. Broome III, niece Traci Evans and numerous grandnieces and grandnephews.

Jane had a mind and a body of steel with a soft, velvety cover - and a voice of sugared honey.

Jane died in her own bed.

Jane was my mother.