Hilda Sparks Obituary

Ignacio resident Hilda Elsie Block Sparks died at her home Saturday, Aug. 29, 2009. She was 86.

Mrs. Sparks was born to Harold and Elsie Block in Monticello, Wis., on Dec. 2, 1922. When she was 5, her family moved to Texas, then to the Clovis-Portales area of New Mexico in 1929.

Mrs. Sparks attended schools in Portales before completing her senior year of high school in Monroe, Wis., where she lived with her paternal grandparents, Emil and Lina Boesch. While she was in Wisconsin, her family moved to the Ima, N.M., area.

"Returning to New Mexico, Hilda's eyes rested on a handsome young man playing fiddle at community dances," her family wrote. "Hilda, one to always find a way to get what she wanted, set her sights on Rexel F. Sparks and won his heart for the next 65 years."

The couple married in Clovis on June 14, 1941.

They settled on the Sparks homestead at Ima, where they raised five children. The Sparkses farmed wheat and raised cattle, as well as sharing the driving of a school bus for 35 years. When Mrs. Sparks became the postmaster for the Ima area, she handled the mail in their home.

In 1963, the couple purchased property in Southwest Colorado, shipping cattle here in the summers and wintering them in New Mexico.

"During Hilda's life, she exemplified the virtuous woman in caring for her family," they wrote. "Her skills at quilting and crocheting benefited the whole family as she made quilts for her children and grandchildren; in her latter years, she crocheted small tokens of love for great-grandchildren, friends and neighbors."

Her family said they will remember her skill at cooking. Her table was full of fresh vegetables and fruit that she and her husband grew. When age and health limited her ability to have a vegetable garden, she turned every nook and cranny of her garden into a bouquet of flowers.

When she died in view of the Colorado mountains, her family said they remembered her favorite Bible verse, Psalms 121:1, "I will lift up mine eyes to the hills."

Mrs. Sparks was preceded in death by her husband of 65 years, Rexel F. Sparks, in 2006.

She is survived by her sons Joe Sparks of Ignacio, Dick Sparks of Monte Vista, Donnie Sparks of Cañon City and Kelly Sparks of Peoria, Ariz.; daughter Kay Frazier of Melrose, N.M.; brothers Raymond Block and Shug Block, both of House, N.M., and Harold Block of Harrison, Ariz.; sister Sally Whitesides of Farwell, Texas; 20 grandchildren; and 22 great-grandchildren.

A funeral will be held at 10 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2009, at Melrose Baptist Church in Melrose, N.M. Burial will take place at Ima Cemetery, with a reception at the House Community Center in House, N.M.

A special co-memorial service will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 5, 2009, at Pine River Valley Baptist Church in Ignacio, for her and her longtime friend Jeanne Whitman, her son, Joe Sparks' mother-in-law, who died on Aug. 25.