Anna Marie Hooks, 85, passed away Tuesday, December 31, 2024.
Anna was born November 20, 1939, to Woodrow and Gwendolyn Breeden in Courtney “Holler”, near Guion, Arkansas. After graduating from Batesville High School, she stayed in Batesville while attending Arkansas College (Lyon College), where she met and married Gene Hooks. After college, Anna and Gene moved to Green Forrest, Arkansas, Gene’s hometown, where he became a high school teacher and head basketball coach as they raised their two boys, Lance and Shawn.
After the tragic death of Gene, Anna and her boys moved back to Batesville, where she and her sister, Betty Rose, opened “Rose Anna’s Donut Shop,” which they operated for many years.
In 1982, she and her two high school boys moved to Rifle, Colorado, a small town on the Western Slope. It was an adventurous and memorable journey, and they returned to Batesville a year later, where she lived out the rest of her life.
Anna was beautiful – yes, as a stunning beauty queen in her younger days, but her real beauty went much deeper. Anna’s tenacity and determination to make a better life for her boys, despite being widowed and uprooted from her home, was courageous. Anna’s infectious laugh, wit, and observations drew people to her, and her honest and loyal friendship was a gift to the lucky few.
She is survived by her two boys, Lance and Shawn, both now living in Batesville; a grandson, Hunter Hooks, his wife Mandy, and their children Emmet and Levi, from Littleton, Colorado; nephew Curt Sims and his family, wife Pam, and two boys, Woody and Lucas, from Denver.
She is preceded by her parents, Woodrow & Gwendolyn Breeden, her husband Gene, sister Betty Rose, and grandson (Lance’s son) Dawson Hooks.
Anna’s unique frontier mindset juxtaposed by her cosmopolitan beauty and style, will be woefully missed in this world.
Anna Marie Hooks. A life well lived… in full.
Services will be held on Saturday January 18, at 1 p.m., at the First Baptist Church in Batesville. In lieu of flowers, please contribute to the First Baptist Food Bank.
