Killeen septuagenarian continues life of service despite ongoing serious health issues
BY JOHN CLARK HERALD CORRESPONDENT
Maria Garcia came to the U.S. in 1963 as a 16-year-old old exchange student from Germany, started working as a hair stylist two years later, and continues to cut hair twice a week at a salon in Killeen.
Not only that, the now 77-yearold has volunteered to provide complimentary hair services for hundreds of homebound clients and nursing home residents over the years, and she has done it in spite of having cancer three different times and undergoing 20 surgeries, including a recent emergency procedure to repair complications from a colonoscopy
“God has brought me through all this, so I want to help other people who need help,” Garcia said. “I get more out of it than they do. It is really helpful to me to be able to help people who needed me.” When she left Germany for the United States, Maria arrived on one of the country’s most historic days. She was sponsored by a U.S. Ar my colonel, but when her plane landed at the airport in Dallas, there was no one there to greet her.
“I actually arrived in Dallas the day (President John F.) Kennedy got shot (November 22, 1963),” she said. “The colonel who was my sponsor, and who I was going to live with, was not there to pick me up. I thought,
‘Oh, my gosh, they forgot I was coming.’
“So I went up to a lady and asked if she could help me. I said, ‘This is such an emotional country,’ because men were crying; women were crying. She said, ‘You didn’t hear what happened?’
“Apparently, they had barricaded coming through Dallas, and so they had to come around through Fort Worth or Arlington to get to the airport to pick me up. That was my introduction.”
After settling in her new home in Killeen, Garcia started going to high school, where she was
part of the first class to graduate from what was then a brand new Killeen High in 1965. She also attended Central Texas College, but it was an otherwise routine trip to get her hair trimmed that sent her life in a new direction.
“I had always wanted to work but in Germany it’s not like here where at 16 you can go get a job,” she said. “You would go to a trade school and then work. I came from a line of teachers and my parents always told me to get my education first. I was going to go back to Ger many and teach English.
“I used to go to Elena’s down
on Avenue D to get my hair trimmed, and one time I said to Elena, ‘I wish I could do this,’ and she said, ‘If you’re willing to put forth the effort, go to beauty school during the summer and I’ll give you a job.’
So I ran home, told the colonel, and he said, ‘I’ve got to call your dad first.’
“I said, ‘Oh, no, I probably won’t even like it.’ But I loved it and I got my license. She gave me a job, and my dad was very upset. I worked for Elena’s and then I was manager for Elena’s number 2. I met her son, Gus Garcia, and we fell in love and got married. We were married 13 years and then we got divorced.”
After working for Elena’s Maria opened Foxy Lady Hair Designs on Florence Road and owned that salon for 10 years. Her dad got sick back in Germany and she went home for six weeks, then came back and continued operating the business for a while until his condition deteriorated and she needed to get back home. She tried to lease the business but wound up selling it. Now, she works two days a week at Cinnabar Hair Design on Trimmier. She has been cutting hair so long that she has clients who are the children of longtime customers
Asked about Women’s History Month and what it means to her, Garcia said it is important to recognize and honor the con-
tributions women have made throughout history
“Women play such an important role in our life. We are caretakers; we understand; we help,” she said. “Women do so much. I feel they contribute so much to the country.”
As she recovers from yet another hospital stay, Maria says she feels blessed and grateful to be alive. After being single for 48 years, she was married for five years to the late John Idoux, who served here as executive director for the for mer Tarleton State University-Central Texas, and was instrumental in helping establish Texas A&M University-Central Texas in Killeen, a part of the Texas A&M University system. He died last April.
A proud mother of two and grandmother of four, Maria says she looks forward to getting back to helping people as long as she is able to do so. Oh, and she also would not mind seeing a great-grandchild or two join the family
“God has blessed me with two great Christian kids, and four great Christian grandkids. I cannot complain,” she said. “I told my granddaughter, who graduated with her master’s last year, I said, ‘Sophia, the one thing Oma wants before she dies or can’t function anymore, is a great-grandbaby.’
“She looked at me and she said, ‘But, Oma, you know I have to get married first.’
Maria Garcia surrounded by her grandchildren (le to right): Jimmy Garcia, Kinan McElroy, Korey McElroy and Sophia Garcia.
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Central Texas native dedicated to ser ving her community
BY JOHN CLARK HERALD CORRESPONDENT
COPPERAS COVE — Crystal Owens was born at Darnall Army Medical Center on Fort Hood (now Fort Cavazos), graduated from Copperas Cove High School in 2004, and after surviving cancer not once but twice during the past 10 years has dedicated herself to improving the community through her extensive volunteer efforts.
“I feel very strongly that instead of being one of those people who just sits back and says, ‘Oh, they should do it this way, or it should be done that way,’ I want to actively contribute to helping as much as I can,” Owens said. “With this being the community that I grew up in, and the community that I’m choosing to raise my family in, I want to do everything in my power in order to make it better for the next generations.”
Married to husband, Jonathan, for 15 years, the mother of two and for mer family law paralegal now works as co-owner of Rainbow Hearts Studio, a family business she described as “an inclusive art and music and creativity studio.” The couple also leads a band, “Brother Jon and the Rainbow Hearts,” an outfit growing in popularity throughout the region.
“We want to bring out the fun and authentic side that comes along with creativity. A lot of times, especially as we age or
life catches up to us, it’s really easy to kind of put that stuff on the back burner,” Crystal said. “It’s something that was really important to us … that people find joy in these kinds of things.”
A lot of her volunteer work involves using her artistic skills
to paint murals inside and outside buildings in Copperas Cove and Killeen. So far, she has been involved in completion of 10 mural projects. Along with that, she was recently named president of Keep Copperas Cove Beautiful; serves as an ambassador for Cove Chamber of Commerce;
vice president for Democrats of Copperas Cove; a board member for the non-profit Not Rich but Enriched; and a board member for RISE Co-op, a homeschool group where she teaches art.
It was July 23, 2014, when Crystal was diagnosed with thyroid cancer, a day that changed
her life forever
“I’ll never forget that day,” she said. “I was a young parent at that time — my kids were one and three — and I didn’t know what was wrong. A lot of times, when I would go and get checked out, it was really easy for them to say, well, you’re a young mom, so of course you’re going to be exhausted. That is normal.
“I knew deep down the kind of tiredness I was feeling was not normal.”
Treatment was successful, and then in 2020, there was more bad news, and she had surgery on Thanksgiving Day for kidney cancer. These days, Crystal is healthy and happy, but her medical issues have left her with an urgency to make the world — or at least her corner of it — a better place
“When I got sick, I became hyper-aware of my mortality,” she said. “It’s one of those things where it seems like there is never going to be enough time to do everything I want to do. Time is never guaranteed (and) I want to do everything I can do with the time that I have left.
“I am about 10 years out now, and if I’m being really transparent, I probably cried for the first two years. I was really sad. It was, like, oh, why me. I don’t know what happened with my mindset, but I want to say it was about year three. I had this
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One way Crystal Owens gives back to the community is by spearheading projects to paint murals on building exteriors and interiors in Killeen and Copperas Cove.
Longtime Central Texas educator drops 105 pounds
BY JOHN CLARK HERALD CORRESPONDENT
A few years ago, longtime Central Texas educator Lori Ann Hensley tipped the scales at 245 pounds, which at 5-feet, 6-inches tall put her in the obese category. Then came an alarming trip to the doctor
“She said I was a borderline diabetic and that we needed to really consider some options for the future. Medication (and) things like that,” said Lori Ann, executive director of special programs at Priority Charter Schools in Killeen, Temple and Copperas Cove. “That was a wake-up call, and I said, ‘Please give me three months to really try and do this on my own … see if I can make a difference.’
“From the moment I left that appointment, I changed everything.”
Hensley was born in Ladd, Illinois, a small town about two hours south of Chicago. She grew up with a brother, and after graduating high school in 1999, she headed off to Illinois State University to study social work and later switched to education. After earning her bachelor’s degree, she started a career that continues today
Over the years, long work hours, stress, poor eating habits, and lack of exercise caused Lori Ann to start gaining weight. She was her heaviest around February 2020 and not particularly happy about what she saw
in the mirror, but also finding it difficult to do something to turn things around.
“I was very, very depressed,” she said. “I knew I had to make changes, but up until then just had not had anything to force me to do something.
“For me, it was a matter of a mental game of realizing it was OK to take care of myself and put myself first and set aside that time. I felt so guilty (because) I was at work all the time, and so if I wasn’t at work, I felt
like I had to be home with my kids and my husband. I wouldn’t allow myself the time to ever make working out a priority.
“I was super fit and healthy and involved in athletics and dance when I was younger (and) even through college. Had children and things kind of slowly went downhill from there. I was a single mom for a couple of years, and so I was focused on my career and supporting my family. I was climbing the ranks and furthering my education,
and I stopped making time for myself.”
Then came that trip to the doctor and Hensley, a former principal at Williams-Ledger Elementary School in Copperas Cove, joined a workout group, changed her eating habits, and slowly started shedding pounds.
“I changed everything about the way I was eating; making time to work out,” she said. “I did a lot of meal prepping in the beginning: high protein, low carb, no sugar. Changing your
eating habits is not easy, but for me, I really think the mental game is harder than the nutrition part. I had to stop letting the scales rule my life. There was a point in time when I was so strict and so focused on that scale changing that it was unhealthy in the other direction. I became scared of food for a little while. I was scared to eat anything because it might make me gain a pound or two. What I was forgetting is that I was working out hard, too, so I was gaining muscle mass, and that doesn’t always equate to movement on the scales
“Now, I look at food as fuel, which is very different from my Italian upbringing, where food is a social event. You know, you eat when you’re happy; you eat when you’re sad; you eat when you’re bored. I’ve really had to switch to the mindset that food is fuel, and I need to put healthy things in my body. I’ve had fun finding and creating recipes that are both healthy and delicious, but I’m always looking at the nutrition piece first.”
These days, the mother of four weighs in at 140 pounds. She has dropped from wearing XX and XXX sizes to size 6 and wants to shed another 10 pounds. The change has been dramatic, and she gives a lot of credit to her workout buddies and to Troy, her husband of 15 years “I have a really close-knit
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Lori Ann Hensley weighed 240 pounds back in February 2020 and now checks in at 140 pounds, thanks to a number of lifestyle changes.
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mindset shift, and I thought, ‘You know, why not me? Why does something tragic have to happen to somebody else all the time? If this is the cards I’ve been dealt, then I’m going to play the best I can with what I have.’
“That’s what I do now. Just play the game the best I can and stay in the game as long as I possibly can. It’s been a challenge, for sure, but it just adds more fuel to my fire to do all these things I want to do.”
Earlier this year, Crystal and Jonathan were recognized by the Copperas Cove Chamber of Commerce with a Colleague of the Year award, an honor they shared with Not Rich but Enriched, a local non-profit group that seeks to help make community resources more equitable and available.
“I was shocked,” Crystal said. “I didn’t know we were nominated until a couple days prior, and I certainly didn’t think we were going to win. So it was really special to win the award with some of our best friends.”
As for Women’s History Month, Crystal says the March recognition is important to not only recognize and honor contributions made by women throughout history, but also to help show up-and-coming generations that anything is possible
“Oh, yeah, certainly,” she said. “I want my daughter to know that she has the whole world open to her. There’s limitless possibilities for her “I think about seeing my mom grow up in the workforce and some of the things she
encountered as a woman. I feel very lucky that I haven’t had nearly the same kinds of experiences as her, and if I can continue working to make it better for my daughter and future generations, that’s what I’m really passionate about.”
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group of women that I work out with and dance with. They motivate me and we hold each other accountable. I don’t think I could do it without them,” she said. “Of course, Troy has been amazing. He has never once made me feel guilty for putting myself first; for taking the time to work out.
“It’s funny to me, because I still feel like the same person a lot of times. Even when I look in the mirror, I don’t always see it. But it always feels good when I see somebody I haven’t seen for a long time and they don’t recognize me, or the first thing they say is, ‘Oh, my goodness, you’ve lost so much weight. You look amazing.’
“My goal is 130 (pounds). I’ve kind of plateaued, so it’s a lot harder now. At first, when you really commit yourself, the scale moves faster in the beginning. I’ve started the last couple of weeks getting more strict again with what I’m putting into my body, and I think that’s making a little bit of a difference.”
As Women’s History Month continues, Hensley says it is important to remember all the struggles and strides that have been made in the past, and how much remains to be done:
“To me, it is about honoring the strength, resilience, and diverse journeys of women everywhere. It’s about recognizing the beauty in our struggles, the power in our growth, and the importance of supporting each other, no matter
where we are on our personal journeys. It’s about reclaiming our narratives and showing that, as women, we’re allowed to be proud of every step we take.
“It’s important because it highlights how far we’ve come, but also how much work is still needed. For example, as a middleaged, professional woman, I found myself stressing over what pictures to share on my fitness journey, worried about how I’d be judged simply because I’m a woman. Would someone think less of me for the size and shape of my body or how I’m dressed?
The fact that this is something I have to worry about shows there’s still progress to be made
It’s a reminder that women should be able to embrace their journeys without fear of judgment, and that’s something we all need to continue striving for.”
To anyone out there struggling with losing weight, Hensley says it is not an easy jour ney and there will be good days and bad days, but she is proof that it can be done
“You don’t have to be perfect,” she said. “I would say to give yourself grace. You have to make each decision better than the previous day’s decision. There were days that I cheated and didn’t follow my plan, and instead of getting down on myself, I just had to decide it’s a new day and I can make better decisions today.
“Also, you cannot do it alone. Find yourself a group of people that will support and motivate you. The ladies I have surrounded myself with through my Zumba group are part of the reason I’ve been so successful.”
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A Central Texas native, Crystal Owens was recognized recently by the Copperas Cove Chamber of Commerce along with her husband, Jonathan, for their volunteer efforts.