Tom Hoskins, son of Jack and Billie Hoskins, was born in the back room of the old farm house near Post, Texas on May 27,1944.

The third of six children, he was raised on a dry land cotton farm. He spent these first years hoeing cotton, driving tractors, picking cotton, and milking cows. His was a world of agrarian work with many farm tasks. He spent his first three school years at the New Moore School. Then the next nine at O'Donnell School where he graduated as valedictorian.

He escaped the drudgery of the farm at age eighteen and enrolled in the school of business at Texas Tech College in Lubbock, Texas, some 40 miles up the road.

2004

While at Tech, he worked at Dunlap's department store in Lubbock to make expenses. His beginning pay was minimum wage, a dollar an hour.

In 1963, his sophomore year, he married Janice Clayton, his high school sweetheart.

After graduating from Texas Tech in 1966, he went to work for The Dunlap Company full time and spent his 38 year retail career there, retiring as president in 2000 at age fifty five.

Mr. Hoskins opened an investment office in 2000 where he looks after his real estate, banking, and farming interests. His hobbies include the '54 Ford Club of America, which he founded and serves as current president. He also does a little hunting and fishing and occasionally writes. And he takes special delight in his grandchildren.

Mr Hoskins passed on March 26 2016.