Obituary of Gary R. Hackney

Gary Hackney, a resident of Hollister, California, for 84 years, died after a brief illness on Friday, June 28 th ,2024, surrounded by his son and daughter at the Mabie skilled nursing facility. He had turned 91 three months before. Gary was born in the dust-bowl years in Oberlin, Kansas on March 18, 1933, to Floyd and Lila Hackney, both natives of Kansas. In February of 1940, Floyd’s Model A was loaded up with everything it could hold and the family headed west to Hollister, where a job and a single-room home awaited at the Ellerd Bean ranch on Southside Road. While Floyd worked at the ranch, eight year old Gary and his younger sister, Greta, really did walk two miles every day to the one-room classroom at Southside school. On the weekends, Saturday nights were set aside for hot baths taken one at a time in a large tin washtub, the water heated on the kitchen stove. Later, both Greta and Gary completed their early education in town at Hollister Grammar School, now defunct, but then adjacent to Hollister High school, which Gary attended from 1947-1951, where was an all-MTAL football star; a receiver for the Balers during his time on the team. While in high school, he worked tirelessly, delivering prescriptions by bicycle to patrons of Packy Whalen’s (Whalen’s Drug Store), on farms for the war effort, and in later life, worked simultaneously at Ideal Cement plant in San Juan Bautista (1951) while keeping books for Fred and Verna Penna’s Shell (later Richfield) station at the corner of 4th & Line and, later,for Hollister Auto Parts when the cement plant shut down in September of 1973. In the interim, he served as Staff Sergeant at Fort Ord during the Korean war, and married Mary Ann Penna in 1952, a marriage that produced four children: Keri, Paige, Brian, and Jeanne. After divorcing in 1968, he married Ruth Stull (nee Silva), becoming stepfather to David, Denise, and Daniel Stull, in a union that lasted more than 54 years. During that time, Gary loved keeping up with the Giants and the Niners, tending to his garden (early girl tomatoes), supporting Babe Ruth baseball by helping to install the lights at Veterans Memorial Park, and spending many years attending little league and softball games there, calling games from the booth in the 70s and 80s (he had that kind of voice). In later years he enjoyed nothing more than watching his granddaughters play softball--and feeding every species of bird within San Benito County. Gary was a kind and helpful neighbor, an avid gardener of summer tomatoes and fuchsias, a consummate story-teller, and an astute problem solver: he could fix just about anything he set his mind to with obsessive meticulousness. He lived a simple life, lived it well, and was content with what he had; wanting more would not have crossed his mind. He loved recounting his years growing up in Hollister, reflecting on the people and places it used to be. An easygoing approach to life contributed to his longevity, noting his ideal blood pressure even in the last week of his life. Dad’s advice: “Stop worrying.” He is very much loved and missed by his wife Ruth, 4 children, 7 grandchildren, and 11 great grandchildren (a 12th is on the way). CBS Television produced a brief video as a tribute, noting his many appearances on bay area television over the years. It can be seen at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_m3LklB-fM