Hazel Dockery

Hazel Marie Dockery, 80, of Grand Junction, Colorado passed peacefully in her home on Tuesday, December 10, 2019. Arrangements were handled by Brown’s Cremation & Funeral Service in Grand Junction. A celebration of Hazel’s life will be planned for a later date and announced for family and her many friends.

Hazel, a Grand Junction resident for 49 years, was born June 19, 1939 in Potter County, Texas to Roy Glenn and Norine Baker Walls. She graduated from Palo Duro High School in 1957. She attended Amarillo Junior College and was a bookkeeper for most of her life operating Hazel Dockery Accounting. Many of her clients became life-long friends and she treasured each and every one of them.

On May 30, 1970, Hazel married the love of her life, Wayde Dockery and moved to Grand Junction to start a new chapter in beautiful Western Colorado which she loved until her last breath. Her favorite view was that of the Grand Mesa every morning when she drank her coffee. She would always report to her family when the bear and the swan on the side of the Mesa would appear and disappear. She was adamant to stay in Grand Junction and remained independent until her last breath.

The daughter of a dry land wheat farmer, Hazel was tough yet loving like so many of her generation. She loved her family with all her heart and they were the joy of her life. She enjoyed cooking, skiing, attending countless horse shows with her daughter and band contests and concerts with her son. Later in life she engaged in gardening, reading, and always kept abreast of politics.

She was preceded in death by her husband, both her parents; an infant brother, Don Walls; two brothers, Clifton Walls and Richard Walls; and two sisters, Linda Walls Clark and Velma Lou Sellman.

Survivors include her son, Daniel Dockery and wife Treena of Pierce, Colorado; her daughter, Catherine Owen and husband Bruce of Greenville, South Carolina; her sister, Ruth Houston of Houston, Texas; one cherished granddaughter, Claire Dockery; a beloved great-grandson, Frankie Beaudry, and numerous nieces and nephews as well as grandnieces and grandnephews who she always enjoyed hearing from and following their lives.

Hazel loved children and had a tender spot for those with special needs. The family requests that memorial donations should be made to the Hazel Dockery Memorial Fund at St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital, 262 Danny Thomas Place, Memphis, TN 38105. The online link is https://fundraising.stjude.org/site/TR/GiftFunds/GiftFunds?px=6399616&pg=personal&fr_id=39300