Kate Everett

Ruby Kate Crocker Everett, 97, passed away on Wednesday, July 23, 2025 in Hillsboro, TX. Funeral services will be held at 1:00 P.M. Monday, July 28, 2025 at Clifton Funeral Home. Burial will follow at Smith Bend Coon Creek Cemetery. Visitation will be held one hour prior to the service at the funeral home.

Kate was born April 10, 1928 in Seagoville, Texas and spent her youth there, graduating from Seagoville High School in 1946. From there she began her working life in Dallas, first with Lone Star Gas then at the downtown Sears Department Store in Customer Service.

It was at Sears that she would meet her soulmate, David Paul Everett, who worked in the service department there. In 1952, they eloped to Texarkana, Arkansas and returned to Dallas to begin a marriage that would last over 70 years.

The family attended the local Methodist church, but many weekends were spent on area lakes in their cabin boat, Katie, illustrating the family’s lifelong love of the water. After David worked a stint at General Electric in Dallas, in 1962 they purchased a fishing camp at Lake Whitney, Cooney Cavern Lodge.

They would live there for the majority of the remainder of their lives—until 2023—including rebuilding their house after a May 2000 tornado destroyed it.

Kate was an exceptional bookkeeper for the lodge and, later, for Everett Appliance Service that she and David ran as well as a water company they created to route water to nearby neighbors. When Texas required Cooney Cavern Water to register and become state regulated, Kate passed all the necessary, myriad testing requirements to earn the essential certificates.

She and David were inseparable. They traveled and fished together for decades with Kate becoming an expert angler, helping the duo win numerous awards in bass fishing competitions throughout the state.

Kate was not a dancer, but she soon learned and they became an impressive dance couple. Well into their 90s, Kate and David danced to song after song in venues all around the lake, earning reputations as the most talented couple on the floor.

Kate and David were well known and loved all over the Lake Whitney area. When their children participated in school sports, they were there at every event, always with food and treats for all of the Meridian High athletes.

Their kindnesses were legendary, often giving stressed customers a break on their water bills and appliance repairs or simply being there for neighbors in need.

Kate is survived by son David Paul Everett, Jr. (Julie Smith) of Lake Whitney; daughter Paula Kay Campbell (husband Mark Campbell) of Weatherford; grandchildren Jeremy Everett of Waco; Julie Duran of Weatherford and Hayley Stotler of Weatherford; and eight great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by parents John Thomas and Willie Mae Crocker; sisters Lucile Agnes Crocker (5 months old) and Velma Ruth Crocker (age 6), Mattie Maxine Tillery, and Dorothy Lee Minix; daughter-in-law Deborah Everrett, and her forever-beloved husband David Paul Everett, Sr.

Kate was a generous and kind woman. However, she was not shy about raising her voice when she spied any misdeed that needed correcting. How happy she must be now in heaven with her sisters, family members, and, of course, her beloved David!