Hazel Lorene Segrest

Hazel Lorene Tiner Segrest, 98, passed away surrounded by her daughters and their husbands on November 7, 2018, at The Cottages at Chandler Creek Memory Care Facility in Round Rock, Texas. Her funeral services will be 1:30 pm Friday, November 16, at Wilkirson-Hatch-Bailey Funeral Home, 6101 Bosque Blvd. in Waco, Texas. Chaplain Doug Cobb of Baylor Scott & White Hillcrest will officiate. Burial will follow at Waco Memorial Park. Hazel was born in the small east Texas town of Malakoff on Aug. 7, 1920. She was one of ten children. Her father, of Cherokee heritage, first owned the town blacksmith shop and then the first Malakoff Chevrolet dealership. Hazel was a precocious, intelligent child who would memorize and recite long poems in a precise and evocative manner, a trait that continued until age 94. Wanting to help in the war effort during World War II, she first worked as a telephone operator in Athens, Texas, and then moved to Houston, where she worked as a receptionist at a ship-building company. There she met and married Ross Alton Segrest and they moved to Waco. She lived in Waco most of her life, and was married to Mr. Segrest for forty-seven years. Hazel was a homemaker as well as an active volunteer and board member of some of Waco’s largest nonprofit organizations, including the Salvation Army, the American Cancer Society, the Huaco Campfire Council and the United Fund. She was president of several schools’ PTAs, including Hillcrest Elementary and Lake Air Junior High, and was awarded an honorary life membership to the PTA. Hazel served as an officer of the McLennan County League of Women Voters, and had been Chair of the Hospitality Committee of the Democratic Women of McLennan County. She was active in the Waco Civic Theater and the Historic Waco Foundation. Hazel was an active member of the First Baptist Church of Waco and later at Lake Shore Baptist Church. She supported her husband, who worked for Brazos Electric Power Cooperative for twenty-seven years and was general manager there for five years, in all of his charitable, cultural, educational and political activities. Both were very active, lifelong members and supporters of the Democratic Party in Waco, as well as at the state and national level. She led troops of Bluebirds and Camp Fire Girls, and urged her daughters to be athletic with swimming and tennis. She encouraged them to love the theater by enrolling the eldest in Baylor’s Children’s Theater and later in Waco Civic Theatre productions. Hazel was an avid and talented cook who won several national and local cooking competitions and other honors for her original recipes. She was also a skilled seamstress and a tireless gardener. She enjoyed dancing with her husband and good friends to “big band” music at Waco area country clubs and dance halls. She was also loved to enter contests, and her efforts paid off with many wins big and small. Later in life, and after the death of husband, she surprised family and friends by taking a very active interest and involvement in stock and securities. She is preceded in death by her husband as well as her nine siblings, Mattie, Gussie, Myrtie Melisa, Lloyd, Tempie, Julius, David, Ray and Tom Billy Tiner. Survivors include daughters, Sara Segrest Kennedy and her husband, Mark Fries; and Melissa Caroline Segrest and her husband, Joe Stafford, all of Austin. She has four grandchildren: Paul Lyons McBrayer Kennedy and wife, Yael Bizouati of Vero Beach, Florida; Nicholas Ross O’Keefe Kennedy of Brooklyn, New York; Hilary Clare Kennedy of Berkeley, California; and Emily Sara Zipp of Austin. Pallbearers will be Paul Kennedy, Nicholas Kennedy, Mark Fries, Joe Stafford, Fred Zipp, Brian Ginsburg and Stanley Ginsburg. Memorials may be made to the Salvation Army of Waco or Dignity Hospice of San Antonio. The family invites you to leave a message or memory on our “Tribute Wall” at www.WHBfamily.com