Ova Jean Hutson (née McDaniel)

Ova Jean Hutson (née Mc-Daniel) passed away at her home in the Lake LBJ village of Sunrise Beach, Texas, on March 26, 2024. Born on March 18, 1931, in Algerita, Texas (San Saba County), to parents Guy Denzil and Augusta McDaniel, Jean was a true daughter of the Texas Hill Country. She graduated from San Saba High School in 1949 where she was the proud head cheerleader for the Armadillos! After graduation, she moved to Austin where she met and married James C. (“JC”) Hutson on July 27, 1951. In 1961, Jean and JC moved to the then-rural South Austin community of San Leanna Estates where they lived for the next 30 years and raised three sons. She was a wonderful mother and grandmother who was always there when we needed her, and she always took a heartfelt interest in all of her sons’and grandchildren’s endeavors (sports, music, horses, etc.).

Jean was an artist and avid painter. Her choice of medium was oil painting, and her favorite subjects were landscapes of Texas wildflowers, barns, houses, and windmills, reminiscent of her childhood in the Hill Country. Jean’s favorite color was pink, and she had a special penchant for dachshunds.

Jean and JC moved to Lake LBJ in 1989 where they enjoyed retirement and fellowship with their many friends and neighbors. Decades of warm summer days and nights were spent on board their boat or simply enjoying a beautiful sunset from their porch. Jean was as good or better fisherman as any of the men (although she refused to clean the fish)!

Jean had many lifelong friends, some going all the way back to her childhood. She shared countless tales about growing up on a farm in rural Central Texas during the post-depression years. Stories about having no money, but not knowing they were poor; stories about crop failures and successes; stories about her father relocating to the Texas Hill Country after World War I; stories of her brothers as teenagers leaving to fight in World War II (and her mother worrying all the while they were gone); stories of her father harvesting vegetables and placing them in piles for hungry neighbors; stories of shenanigans she and her best friend Mary Greg put her mother through; stories of learning to drive at age 12; stories of having to eat fried chicken for lunch every day (and swapping it out for bologna sandwiches at school); the list goes on and on. Her final story is not one of sorrow, but a celebration of a life well-lived.

Spring was Jean’s favorite season, and each year she marveled at the newest crops of bluebonnets and Indian paintbrushes as they pushed their way to the surface. It is fitting that the last season of her life was this Spring - when the wildflowers were so bountiful.

Jean is survived by son Mark and daughter-in-law Jacalyn of Austin; Paul (Kirk) and son-in-law Rick Bravo of Rancho Santa Fe, CA; granddaughter Regan Hutson of Houston; granddaughter MacKenzie Taylor of Austin; grandsons Ford and Grant Bravo of Rancho Santa Fe, CA; grandchildren Ciera and Devon Hutson; great-grandchildren Keegan Taylor and McKinley Taylor; and many beloved nieces and nephews. Jean is also survived by her Sunrise Beach family: Liz Molgren, Michael and Georgia Daugherty, Charlie and Nancy Trammell, and Amy Pena, all of whom she loved dearly.

Jean is preceded in death by her husband JC, her son Wade, her parents Guy Denzil and Augusta McDaniel, her brothers Guy Daryl McDaniel and wife Rosylene, Dwight McDaniel and wife Helen, and her baby sister Adele McDaniel.

Rest in peace, our sweet mother and grandmother. Your journey on earth was a blessing to us all, and your legacy will live on in the hearts of those you touched.

A graveside service and interment was held March 30, 2024, at 3:30 p.m., at Onion Creek Memorial Park, 11608 Chapel Lane, Austin, TX 78748. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the American Lung Association.