Fannie Jo Harris

Fannie Jo (Brooks) Harris, 86, passed away on Wednesday, February 3, 2021, at Advent Health Central Texas in Killeen following a brief illness.

A Come and go visitation will be held on Friday, February 19, 2021, from 12:00 noon to 4:00 p.m. at Sneed Funeral Chapel.  Graveside Services will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, February 20, 2021, at Center Cemetery located on CR 2080 in Lometa, TX.

Fannie Jo was born on November 3, 1934, in Lometa, Texas, to Odas Lee Brooks and Mary Ellen (Boggs) Brooks.  She grew up in Lometa, where she lived her entire life.  She greatly enjoyed riding horses, helping her big brother Kenneth with show steers, and helping on the family ranch and farm.  She helped her mother with the cooking for all the farmhands and they traveled all over Texas combining and thrashing.  She could break horses and her husband, Bud said she could ride a bucking horse better than any man!.

She graduated from Lometa High School and married her high school sweetheart, Forrest Dale "Bud" Harris on September 6, 1953.  Their song was "Hey Good Lookin" by Hank Williams.  Together they enjoyed, of course, riding horses, rodeo's, ranching and cowboying as well as dancing to good country music.  Two days after they were married, Bud was called to Korea, and they were separated for two long years.  When he returned from Korea, they began their life and family together, where he worked on the Richie Ranch, now known as the Oliver Ranch.  Together they were involved and supportive of the Lometa FFA, with the Lometa Roping Club, and assisted in building the first arena, and enjoyed rodeos.  Bud roped calves for a few years and Fannie Jo was the secretary for the Roping Club.  She was always on horseback with the kids for trail rides and parades.

In high school, she barrel raced and quite frequently bragged about riding against (and sometimes winning), some reputable barrel racers.  Fannie Jo was a wife, homemaker, and mother for many years and later a rural mail carrier for 21 years with the Lometa Post Office.  For many years, she helped her parents and brother, Kenneth, with their family orchard, Brooks Orchard, which was located at Red Bluff, in Lometa, TX.  Fannie Jo and Bud celebrated 60 years of marriage in 2013, before Bud's passing on December 20, 2013.  She was also preceded in death by her only son, Kenneth Dee Harris in 1993, which left a huge heartbreak and void in her life, her parents, Odas and Mary Ellen Brooks, her brother, Kenneth Brooks, sisters, Edna Brooks Whitehead Baxter, Lucille Brooks Day and brother, Dewey Brooks.

Survivors include her daughter, Terri Lynn Harris (Wade Allen) of Lometa; grandson, Shane Harris Laughlin (Lyncie) of Goldthwaite; granddaughter, Brooke Ashley Harris of Austin; great-grandsons, Axle Harris Laughlin, Mitchell Wade Laughlin, and numerous nieces, nephews, and other relatives.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to a charity of your choice in Fannie Jo's name.