Cover photo for William Thomas Hughes's Obituary
William Thomas Hughes Profile Photo
1924 William 2008

William Thomas Hughes

July 3, 1924 — February 26, 2008

William Thomas Hughes of Johnson City passed away Tuesday at his home. A World War II veteran and a native of the Watauga community, he was born July 3, 1924. During the war, he served with U.S. Admiral Russell S. Berkeys 7th Fleet on a minesweeper in the South Pacific. Operating only at night, his minesweeper received a presidential citation after clearing the harbor at Corregidor for the troops from Bataan. After the war, he graduated from the University of Tennessee and served a long career with the U.S. government, retiring from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. A descendent of original Tennessee settlers, he had a great-grandfather who settled in Watauga after the Civil War as a teacher/writer who became one of the nations oldest Confederate war veterans. The family also helped establish the Watauga Methodist Church. He is preceded in death by a son, Michael Hughes; his mother, Anna Belle Reynolds Hughes Watson; father, J.W. Hughes; half sister, Florence Hughes Pickering; two half-brothers, Sherman Hughes and Raymond Hughes; and maternal aunts, Rose E. Reynolds, Ethelyne Reynolds Barlow Williams and Marjorie Reynolds Syms. Survivors include his daughter, Anna Michelle Hughes Benson Hunt, of Nashville; three sons, William E. Hughes, of Atlanta, David Hughes and Thomas Hughes, both of Nashville; four grandsons, Kelly Hughes, of Raleigh, North Carolina, Matthew Hughes, Wesley Benson and Jacob Hunt all of Nashville; one granddaughter, Kelsey Benson, of Nashville; his former wife of 28 years and friend, June Frazier Hughes, of Nashville; sister, Eileen Hughes Klebenow and her husband Donald L. Klebenow, of Knoxville; one niece, Anne Klebenow, of Knoxville; maternal aunt, Dorothy E. Reynolds, of Johnson City; sister-in-law, Thelma Hughes, of Elizabethton; half nephew, Ted Hughes, of Johnson City; half nieces Deloris Craig, of Johnson City; Jo Ann Campbell, of Elizabethton, Anne Bender and Janice Price, both of South Carolina; and special friends, Robert and Dorothy Sliger, Mike Lascola, Vicky Moody, Ralph Reynolds, all of Johnson City, Kim Belt, of Atlanta and Marie Morris, Of Ocean City, Maryland. The funeral service for William Thomas Hughes will be conducted at 1 PM Saturday March 1, 2008 in the Morris-Baker South Chapel. Rev. Bob Edmonds will officiate. The committal service will follow in the Monte Vista Memorial Park. Active pallbearers will be: William E. Hughes, David R. Hughes, Thomas A. Hughes, Matthew Hughes, Wesley Benson and Mike Lascola. The VFW Post # 3382 and the Tennessee National Guard of Kingsport will accord military honors. The family will receive friends in the funeral chapel from 11AM to 1 PM Saturday prior to the service. For those who wish, in lieu of flowers, the family requests memorial contributions be made in memory of Michael Hughes to St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital, 501 St. Jude Place, Memphis, Tn. 38105

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