Sam was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on December 22, 1916 to Slovenian parents Paul and Mary Mehal Hruska, the 7th of their 8 children, and passed away January 1, 2013, at Brownwood Regional Medical Center, in Brownwood, Texas. He was 96 years old. When he was very young, his family moved to a farm in Hinckley, Ohio, near Cleveland, where he spent most of his life working hard in the fields, caring for Bee Hives, and making Maple Syrup for neighbors, friends and family. He graduated from Hinckley High School around 1934. He and his brothers were always ready to help their farming neighbors with combining, hay-baling, providing and repairing farm equipment, or even custom-building equipment as needed. Outsiders may have viewed some of the land around him as a “junk-yard”, but every piece was a treasure he could use to sell, trade, or build into anything that anyone might need. His whole life was spent helping, giving, and sharing. One of his contemporary farmer neighbors can be quoted as saying, “Sam was a good man —- always a good man. With his passing goes a big chunk of Hinckley’s history.”
Sam was one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, as was his mother and several of his siblings. While he never married, or had any of his own, he loved children, and as a faithful, regular attendant at congregation meetings during his younger years, he was a welcome sight to many a young mother when he would gather up her fretting baby and walk with it in the back of the auditorium until it quited down and another would be needing him. During those years, he became attached to and “adopted” a young family, helping in their move to Brownwood in 1964, then spending every winter with them for the next 25 years. He was welcomed to come here and live with them 2 years ago after breaking a hip and needing a home, being unable to live alone.
Sam was preceded in death by his parents and 6 of his siblings. He is survived by one sister, Ruth Panasik, of Broadview Heights, Ohio, 2 nieces, and 2 nephews: Jane Boppel, of Cleveland, Ohio area; Carl Panasik and wife Beverly of Garland, TX; Emily Burkett and husband, Ron of New Port Richey, FL; and Emily’s brother. Also, his Brownwood “family”: Ronald and Barbara Coleman, their three daughters, Anna Brandon and husband David, of Chapel Hill, North Carolina; Naomi Medina and husband, Richard, of San Marcos, TX; and Rebekah Hardy of Frisco, TX; and their 4 grandchildren and 6 great-grandchildren.
Sam had chosen to be cremated under the direction of Heartland Funeral Home. A Memorial Service will be conducted at the Kingdom Hall of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, 510 Lucas Drive, in Early, TX on Saturday, January 19, 2013, at 1:00 P.M., with Jerry Shipman officiating.
Sam will be remembered as one who loved the outdoors, the farmland, the wildlife — the owl he named “Siegfried” that perched at night atop the highest tree near his house; the “Grandad” catfish that he protected from being caught in his pond and always came to the bank when he came to feed it; and Mr. & Mrs. Wild Duck who would swim from the reeds across the pond to meet him when he called. In all his 96 years of life, Sam built up a reputation with his Creator and his fellowman with implicit faith and trust in Jehovah God’s promise through his son, Jesus Christ, (at John 5:28, 29), that after sleeping peacefully in death for a while, he will be awakened in the resurrection with a young, strong, healthy body to enjoy the beautiful creation again when God’s Will is being “done on earth as it is in heaven”. What a privilege it would be to be here to welcome him back when that time comes.
