CYNTHIA GARCIA
Mother. Grandmother. Businesswoman. Community leader. Feeder of souls and people.
Elizabeth Ann “Tootie” Hall wore many hats throughout her 82 years of life and left a lasting impression on the Springtown community through her work, leadership and service before her death Sept. 24.
Hall was born May 5, 1944, to Bob and Bertha Roden of Haltom City. Bob was a sign painter and Bertha was heavily involved in the community, serving as a state PTA member, assistant director of the Haltom City Senior Citizens Center and an election judge for Tarrant County.
Known affectionately as “Tootie” since birth, Hall was named after Judy Garland’s young character in the classic film “Meet Me in St. Louis.”
Mike Hall, her oldest son, told the Springtown Epigraph that his mother’s older sister, Barbara, came up with the nickname after watching the movie.
“It was weird as her son to be probably an adult or almost an adult and watch a movie where they kept calling your mom's name. I'd never been around that before. I mean, that was my mom. Nobody else had that name,” Mike Hall said.
Tootie Hall grew up in the Birdville and Haltom City areas and settled in Springtown in 1964, where her husband Jerry, a teacher and coach, was from.
A WOMAN WHO MEANT BUSINESS
Among the many hats Hall wore was that of a hardworking, dedicated businesswoman.
Over the years, she helped manage the family fertilizer business by keeping the books and frequently driving large trucks.
Mike Hall said the business was seasonal, and when the season started, the couple worked from daylight to dark. He added that he and his younger brother, Pat, eventually drove the trucks, but their mom drove them long before that.
“She followed him (his father) all over Tarrant County, Parker County, Wise County and beyond, driving commercial fertilizer trucks to make sure they took care of all the farmers,” Mike Hall said.
Tootie Hall owned and operated a local flower shop in Springtown, housed in a former gas station near what is now Taco Casa and Exxon. Mike said although his mother did not operate the shop for a long time, she was dedicated.
“She'd take a job and she'd just run with it. She'd own a business, and she'd run with it. And she was just always very creative and very dedicated to whatever she was doing,” Mike Hall said.
Tootie Hall spent two decades working in advertising, marketing and corporate leadership. She worked in outside sales for print and broadcast media across Texas, including newspaper management and work with radio stations KWBY in Edna and KJIM in Fort Worth. At Color Tile Supermart Inc., she served as an executive assistant before advancing to product buyer, negotiating vendor agreements across 800 stores.
Tootie Hall later worked at Cash America International, serving as the executive assistant to the marketing director and leading franchise services across 20 states. Most recently she worked as an advertising executive for The Azle News and the Springtown Epigraph.
After her husband passed away in 2013, she took full charge of running the family’s Black Angus cattle operation and hay business, which led her to join the Texas & Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association. Hall ran the business for about four years before Mike Hall bought the business from her.
BREAKING BARRIERS IN EDUCATION
Tootie Hall made history while serving in two separate time frames on the Springtown ISD school board for a combined 15 years. She became the board’s first female member and later its first female president in the 1980s and early 1990s. She returned to the board in recent years before stepping down in 2024.
Pat Hall, her younger son, described her as one of the biggest advocates for teachers, partly because her husband was a teacher and several of Tootie Hall’s family members, including all her children, were teachers.
“She was one of the biggest advocates for teachers … But just the amount, golly, she loved teachers, loved administration, she loved the school board, being on the school board, and so it was really awesome to watch and see stuff,” Pat Hall said.
Damon Liles served with Tootie Hall on various boards, including the Springtown ISD school board.
“Tootie wanted to make sure that all of the teachers were recognized for what they do, all of the administrators were recognized for what they do, and she wanted to make sure that all of the student organizations were equally recognized,” Liles said.
Tootie Hall also cheered for everything good that happened in Springtown, Liles added.
“She cheered for all of the organizations and all of the extracurricular clubs, and so that's what made her special. She loved everybody and loved all the kids, but she also made sure the ones that were silent and were left on the back burner were taken care of,” he said.
A HEART FOR SPRINGTOWN
Most recently, Tootie Hall served as the secretary/treasurer on the Neighbor to Neighbors board, where she would pick up food from local businesses such as Chicken Express, Brookshire’s and Dollar General every day.
“All I had to do was call her, she'd be here. All I had to do was say a quick little thing, ‘Hey, I need you,’ and she'd be running here, anything I ever needed, I went to Tootie. She was my go-to person,” Neighbor to Neighbors executive director Laura Carter said.
Carter described Tootie Hall as an important community member.
“She was important, and she tried very hard, and she helped the community and all her organizations. She loved this town, and she was dependable. She was here every day,” Carter said. “All I had to do was call her. I mean you talk about good and faithful servants — that’s what she was. A good, beautiful servant.”
Hall also served as a board member for the Springtown Event Center, formerly known as the Springtown Area Senior Citizen Center, where she managed the rentals and Saturday night dances.
Liles, who served on the board with her, recalled how she helped at the center.
“She was retired and some of us still have jobs that we have to work at, so she silently filled in where the rest of us couldn't, and so she would go to the dances every Saturday night and visit with all the people and continue to grow the attendance — continue to find out ways that we could serve the seniors out there,” he said.
Her community involvement extended beyond those organizations. Tootie Hall was a member of various organizations, including the Springtown Area Chamber of Commerce, where she served as a board member and ambassador.
For many years, she served on the Springtown Education Foundation as a board member and fundraiser, where she helped increase scholarships each year.
She also spent several years as a child advocate and ad litem for Court Appointed Special Advocates of Parker County, as well as serving as a member of the Legends Museum and ambassador for the Azle Area Chamber of Commerce.
Her daughter, Wendy Kennedy, said when she thinks about her mother, she immediately thinks about how devoted she was to helping the community.
“If anybody called, she would try to find out how to help them. So, like for example, one time the chamber called her to get information. Instead of the city knowing what to do, the chamber, they called her to just say, ‘Hey, this is what's going on. What do we need to do?’ And she solved the problem,” Kennedy said.
MORE THAN A MATRIARCH
Liles said although he had lived in Springtown for 26 years and had heard of Tootie Hall, he didn’t get to know her until about 15 years ago, when he moved his business to the community and decided to become more involved.
“Tootie, she's the kind of person that you meet, and she just welcomes you with open arms, and so I met her at the chamber of commerce first, and so I'll never forget it. When I walked in, she looked at me and she said, ‘Gosh, you're tall.’ And then she giggled and said, ‘Well, I guess everybody's tall to me.’ And then she gave me a big hug,” he said.
He added that she was the kind of person people could be themselves around and someone they could immediately form a bond with.
“Going forward, we just formed a bond and a friendship that was truly amazing, and I learned a lot from her. And she had a lot of wisdom and a lot of guidance. I can truly say that at the end, over the years, she's become not just a friend, but she was more like a mom to me,” Liles said.
Pat Hall described his mother as being devoted to humanity and people from all walks of life.
“I said at the funeral, if they were there and they knew her, she loved them, and that's how it was,” he said.
Kennedy shared that her mother would do anything for her grandchildren. Whether they needed rides or items brought to school, Tootie was there. Kennedyrecalled a time when her mother danced in her daughter Abby's third-grade classroom for her birthday.
“One time she dropped off a birthday bouquet or something for my daughter at her (school), and she went to the classroom, and then did a birthday dance right in front of the class for the kids — sang Happy Birthday and danced to the whole class,” she said.
Tootie Hall had a trait that honorable people have — doing the right thing when no one is looking, said Liles.
“She hit the ground running every day with the goal of being a good person and taking care of others, and she loved everybody, and everybody loved her. I think she just had a love for people, a genuine love, that you don't find, and that she used every day to capitalize on that,” Liles said.
He added that Springtown lost someone who was deeply valued by the community.
“I think Springtown has lost one of the most deeply rooted pillars that we'll see in a long time. We've lost somebody that wasn't about her; it was about the community and the kids. And we've lost someone that had a truly sincere, genuine heart for Springtown, and that's going to be hard to replace,” Liles said.
A visitation and celebration of life were held Sept. 30 at the Springtown Church of Christ.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Tootie Hall’s honor to Neighbor to Neighbors Food Pantry at P.O. Box 1391, Springtown, Texas 76082.
