Tom Jack Hughes
Region 6 RVP 1974-75
August 11, 1925 - February 20, 2004
by Ray Houston

Tom was born on a dairy farm near Dublin, Texas, August 11, 1925, the son of Thomas Epting Hughes and Mamie Jane (Dawkins) Hughes. Upon his graduation, he entered the Army Air Force and served in the China-Burma-India Theater during World War II. After this, he attended the University of Texas at Arlington for two years before starting to work at the U.S. Public Health Hospital near Fort Worth. Later, the institution changed from the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare to the Department of Justice.

Tom and Kirksey married in 1948. Their son Stephen was born in 1951 and they had two daughters, Rebecca and Lee Ann.

Tom became aware of some horticultural skills rather reluctantly on his father's dairy farm. There his parents were avid growers of everything - children, vegetables, pigs, fruit, dairy cattle, mums, chickens, Iris, and daylilies. He gained from their knowledge and developed his own horticultural interests.

He had the title of Landscape Foreman at the Federal Correctional Institution of Fort Worth, supervising residents there as they perform all the jobs of caring for some 220 acres of institutional grounds.

In 1954, Tom became interested in daylilies and Iris, as this was his parents' hobby.

In 1955, Tom's dad began to consider retirement from his civil service job to a small nursery specializing in Iris and daylilies. Tom and his dad entered a partnership and in 1958, Mr. Hughes retired to this nursery in Mansfield, Texas.

Tom served Region 6 as 1974-75 RVP and Newsletter Editor.

In 1993, Tom & Kirksey Hughes were honored as recipients of the American Hemerocallis Society Region 6 Service Award.

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