Fannie Jo (Brooks) Harris, 86, died on Feb. 3, 2021 at AdventHealth Central Texas in Killeen after a brief illness.
Visitation will be Feb. 19 from noon to 4 p.m. at Sneed Funeral Chapel in Lampasas.
Graveside services will be at 2 p.m. Feb. 20 at Center Cemetery on County Road 2080 in Lometa.
Fannie Jo was born on Nov. 3, 1934 in Lometa to Odas Lee Brooks and Mary Ellen (Boggs) Brooks. She lived her entire life in Lometa.
She enjoyed riding horses, helping her big brother Kenneth with show steers, and helping on the family ranch and farm. She helped her mother with cooking for the farmhands, and they traveled all over Texas combining and thrashing. She could break horses, and her husband said she could ride a bucking horse better than any man.
In high school, she did barrel racing and quite frequently bragged about racing and sometimes winning against reputable competition. Fannie Jo graduated from Lometa High School.
She married her high school sweetheart, Forrest Dale "Bud" Harris, on Sept. 6, 1953. They enjoyed riding horses, rodeos, 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 years. When he returned, they began their life together where he worked on the Richie Ranch, now known as the Oliver Ranch.
They were involved with the Lometa FFA, Lometa Roping Club and assisted in building the first arena. Fannie Jo was the secretary for the Roping Club.
Fannie Jo later was a rural mail carrier for 21 years with the Lometa post office. For many years, she helped her parents and brother with the Brooks Orchard at Red Bluff.
Fannie Jo and Bud celebrated 60 years of marriage in 2013, before his death on Dec. 20, 2013. She also was preceded in death by her only son, Kenneth Dee Harris, in 1993; her brother, Kenneth Brooks; sisters Edna Brooks Whitehead Baxter and Lucille Brooks Day; and a younger 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 and Mitchell Wade Laughlin; and numerous nieces, nephews and other relatives.
Donations may be made to a charity of one’s choice in Fannie Jo's name.
