Mike W. Manard Sr.

   CROWELL –  Mike W. Manard, Sr., 66, died on Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2014 in Plano. Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m., Saturday, March 1, 2014, at the First United Methodist Church of Crowell with the Rev. Damon Stalvey, pastor, officiating, assisted by the Rev. Monte Lumpkin, pastor of the Goodlett Baptist Church; the Rev. Tyler Looper, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Crowell, and the Rev. Ron Fox, pastor of the Western Trail Cowboy Church of Lockett. Interment will be in the Crowell Cemetery under the direction of Womack-Manard Funeral Home of Crowell.
   Manard was born on Jan. 9, 1948 in Crowell, a son of the late Earl Samuel and Vera Vay Patton Manard.  He was a lifetime resident of Crowell. He married Janell Lee Gray on May 11, 1968 in Thalia. At the age of 12, he began his funeral service career assisting the Womack family, owners of the Womack Funeral Home in Crowell. He graduated Crowell High School in 1966 and earned his mortician’s license from the Dallas Institute-Gupton Jones College of Mortuary Science, where he received the President’s Award for outstanding scholastic achievement. From the late 1960’s to early 1970’s, Manard served as a mortician for Sparkman-Hillcrest Funeral Homes in Dallas, Roscoe Funeral Home in Roscoe and Sullivan Funeral Home in Vernon. He and his wife owned and operated the Crowell Flower Shop in Crowell from 1970 to 1976, the Manard Funeral Home in Chillicothe from 1977 to 1997 and the Womack-Manard Funeral Home from 1977 to 1997. In 1997, Manard and his wife sold the Womack-Manard Funeral Home and the Manard Funeral Home to Otis Smith. Manard continued to manage the Womack-Manard Funeral Home as well as the Smith Funeral Home in Quanah until his death.
   Manard served on the Crowell City Council, the Foard County Hospital Board, the Foard County Development Corporation and founded the Fire Hall Museum in Crowell. He was a member of the First United Methodist Church of Crowell, having served as church organist for 35 years. For 37 years, Mike sold and mapped all cemetery spaces for the Crowell Cemetery.
   Manard was an avid genealogist who was proud of his Scotch- Irish ancestry and Native American heritage, having been appointed Ambassador to the Comanche Nation by Wallace Coffey, Tribal Chairman, in 1997.
   Survivors include his wife, Janell Manard of Crowell; two daughters, Janelllessa Varner of Hobart, Okla., and Jawayne Mikelee Hodges of Sanger; one son, Mike Wayne Manard Jr. of Lubbock, and five grandchildren.
   Memorials may be made to: Crowell Cemetery Association,  P.O. Box 613, Crowell, Texas 79227; Fire Hall Museum, P.O. Box 323, Crowell, Texas 79227; Foard County Veterans Memorial Wall, %Donna Baize, P.O. Box 323, Crowell, Texas 79227 or First United Methodist Church, P.O. Box 786, Crowell, Texas 79227.
   Visitation will be from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m., Friday, Feb. 28, 2014, at Womack-Manard Funeral Home, Crowell.