Cora May (Peppers) Hawkins

Cora Hawkins was born on March 25, 1941, in Avinger, Texas, on the Peppers family farm.  She was the fourth of 5 children:  Leatrice Ann Johnson, Alphonso Peppers, Sr., Lewis Joseph Peppers, and Odell Peppers. 

Cora unwittingly spent her life being a “first” at many things, starting with going to school a year early because her older brothers taught her to read and she was a busybody around the farm.  Her mother, Veree, happily sent her off to school to keep her entertained during the day and knew there were many brothers and cousins to keep her out of trouble.  Her older brother, LJ, even learned how to re-braid her hair on the school bus to conceal and remove all the sand that got into her long ponytails on the playground at recess.  She was an excellent student and participated in multiple sports, played the piano, starred in plays, was the baton twirling majorette, and pushed the boundaries against nonsense rules like no pants on girls going to class.  She wasn’t going to be freezing cold walking miles to and from the bus stop from their farm only in dresses.  She kept wearing those pants and went to detention daily until their high school Principal, Mr. Traylor, finally gave up and pants it was. 

Cora moved to Dallas in 1958 upon her high school graduation after securing a summer job at Baylor Hospital in their food service department and moving in with her godparents, Bertha and Roscoe Porter (Aunt Corria and Uncle OD Cheatham’s daughter); she was in a great spot.  Her mother had saved up $20 from selling her chicken eggs in town and sent it with Cora for any emergencies.  She wasn’t allowed to enter the academic dietitian program at Baylor because of her race, but the supervisor hired her and told her she would teach her everything from the program on the “side,” which she did.  Cora enrolled in Bishop College (now Paul Quinn College) and became a full-time student while simultaneously working full-time at Baylor Hospital.  She was a strong and accomplished student, but when they refused to let her take a math class because she was a woman (she wanted to be a math teacher), she once again stood her ground and left Bishop College and enrolled in a new program for African Americans at Southern Methodist University that offered business classes in the evenings.  She was back on track studying what she wanted to study while continuing to work full time.  Her next unexpected opportunity arrived through word of mouth in the community that a start up, Texas Instruments, was recruiting for the role of a buyer in their food service division.  She applied and was hired as the first African American food buyer for TI.  She ran the Private Dining Room for their executive team for many years.  She often received requests from the executives’ wives concerned that their husbands were getting pudgy eating Cora’s delicious menus, and they asked her to not give them dessert anymore.  She perplexed her chefs by being able to tell them something wasn’t “right” without ever taking a bite of the item in question.  Later as a home cook she rarely used measuring cups and her portions were always spot on.  She frequently walked the stalls of her wholesalers, picked up crates from the docks during bad weather, dealt with threats from segregationists (including one that required an FBI investigation), and threw a large cookout for 100+ executives and their guests out in the middle of nowhere on a ranch without any access to power. 

A few years later, the tight-knit Dallas community once again brought her next opportunity to her.  Mobil Oil Company was starting to hire African Americans in professional positions and not just service jobs.  Word within the community was that no one could pass their screening test.  Many of her colleagues and friends encouraged Cora to go take it and she passed, exceeding expectations in shorthand skills and typing at speeds of over 100 words per minute.  She started as a senior stenographer in Mobil’s credit card department for the southern region.  (Her daughter Veree found her original shorthand book and practice notes while cleaning out her home in New Mexico last summer).  Cora’s office location became the iconic Magnolia Building downtown under Dallas’ famous neon Flying Pegasus.  She did well working there even though she, like all young women of the era, could not have her own Mobil gas card without her father co-signing for it.  She witnessed the Kennedy motorcade pass about a foot from her just outside her office as she returned from her lunch break moments before the tragedy struck.  That sadness never left her heart. 

It was after this period that she met her would-be husband Harry D. Hawkins.  While attending the Idlewild Ball in November 1964, at the Statler Hotel, she was introduced to a visiting gentleman widower from Denver, Colorado.  He was in Dallas on a business trip with Shell Oil Company and attended the ball as a guest of local family friends, Fred and Loula Mae Warbington.  He was smitten with her immediately, but she was more cautious of this handsome and friendly stranger.  He sought her out the next day after church to spend more time with her.  Upon his return to Denver, he had his father, also named Harry, a Pullman Porter, do some reconnaissance on this young woman with his fellow Pullman Porters that ran the Dallas line.  She got the “all clear” from them and the Coloradans were told she was a real catch, ha!

They were engaged the following March and married on August 15, 1965, in Dallas, Texas.  By then her husband had accepted a new job as the Chief Manager of the federal nuclear weapons program for the Atomic Energy Commission based at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  The new family included Harry’s two teenage children, Sandra Gail, and Stephen Earl (and Butch the dog).  They arrived in the desert and began to settle into the next adventures of family life.  After some time, Cora was asked to apply for a temporary position as a senior stenographer for the Director of Security at the Atomic Energy Commission.  She easily passed another skills exam and received the highest level of security clearance to join the organization. The temporary job became permanent, and she made many lifelong friends from the office; and to her last days she never spoke a word about exactly what she did in her classified position.

In 1969, Harry and Cora were selected to attend the National War College at Fort McNair in Washington, DC as part of the Class of 1970. This unique experience at the prestigious institution provided them both with specialized training in international diplomatic relations and would always be a highpoint in their lives.  They became subject matter experts on the Middle East; Harry traveled throughout the region including an in-person meeting and gift exchange with the Shah of Iran before the revolution.  Cora studied the region dutifully for the rest of her life, including talks with Veree about the current state of Middle Eastern affairs her last days in the hospital.

Cora was very proud that her grandaughter, Ellie, was also very interested in this subject having recently taken a college course on nuclear weapons as part of her own college major.  Life rolled along and Cora and Harry returned to Albuquerque, New Mexico, after graduation from the National War College in the summer of 1970 to await their next international posting.  Harry continued his management of the nuclear weapons program back at the Atomic Energy Commission, focusing on how to safely dispose of nuclear waste in the US.

In the spring of 1971, Harry and Cora welcomed their daughter, Veree Lee Ann Hawkins. Cora relished full-time motherhood.  She and Harry were devoted parents to this newest family member and were filled with an abundance of love.  Their postman joked that all of these package deliveries from around the world couldn’t be for one baby!

Unfortunately, life took a terrible detour when Harry was diagnosed with multiple myeloma and later passed away in March of 1975.  Cora, faced with widowhood and a young child, relied on a close circle of friends to make it through those darkest years, always keeping a positive outlook and marching forward like she had with other life obstacles thrown at her. 

Cora was generous, kind, witty, faithful, an avid reader, and grateful for her blessings in life.  Her greatest passion beyond love for her family was people!  She never met a stranger, and for a solid 40 years her telephone rang daily nonstop because she had amazing relationships with people all over the world.  Her friend with the local telephone company created a special telephone cord for her that allowed her to walk anywhere in her house, garage, or backyard with her kitchen phone in-hand.  And occasionally she might fool you by answering her phone as “Jack’s Bar and Grill” rather than “Hawkins residence.”  Her annual Christmas card list always topped 250 or more.  She used to call her home the revolving door of the United Nations because there were always visitors who decided to do a “drive-by” through Albuquerque (including regular visits from a group of Australian Aborigines she met while on the Board of the Albuquerque Museum of Art who became lifelong friends).  Her guest rooms were always ready, her table filled with delicious, home-cooked food, and her heart open to spend time with you.

Out of these many relationships, she continued her “firsts” as the first African American woman appointed as a board member to the Kirtland Air Force Base Advisory Board (she was one of the oldest active members after 50+ years of service, with a reserved seat at the front table, when she moved to Dallas in 2024); as a board member for Lovelace Hospital and the Albuquerque Museum of Art; as an appointed member for the New Mexico Magistrate Judges’ Selection Committee; as a founding member of the Albuquerque Community Foundation; and she and Harry were the first African Americans in New Mexico who were major shareholders of a bank, Rio Grande Valley Bank; she was a long-term member of the New Mexico Humanities Council; and Cora served in many, many more philanthropic roles over the years in New Mexico. 

Her later professional life included being a savvy banker and helping launch all branches of Rio Grande Valley Bank.  She even once engaged a bank robber, who had entered the lobby, in such deep conversation that he left the bank without trying his hold up; he then called her back at the bank 15 minutes later, by name, saying he’d get them the next time (as he had already robbed a bank across the street before he met Cora the conversationalist!).  Other career highlights included selling real estate focusing on ranchettes in the Albuquerque valleys, more banking in auto-loan documentation (where she uncovered a fraudulent insider crime ring), and finally as an activities assistant in a full-service retirement center creating unique activities such as Sunday Mystery Drives and exciting monthly Dinner Club outings. 

Special life moments included family holidays, many balloon fiestas (including the inaugural one where a balloon landed in the street outside her house), graduations, weddings, and births, particularly for one little bundle of joy named Ellie; being greeted personally by name by His Majesty King Charles III when he was His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, attending the opening gala celebration of the Armand Hammer United World College in Las Vegas, New Mexico, (she landed in the newspaper photos and on the TV news film footage the following day); being cast as an extra in several major Hollywood movies in her 70s after meeting the casting agent in the vacuum cleaner repair store; receiving a surprise birthday present to see Ray Charles perform with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, as she had been a baby sitter for his son Bootsy (Ray, Jr.) while a college student in Dallas; traveling with Veree to Latin America; and generally spending lots of time with her friends and always ready to help those in need.

Following complications from a stroke, Cora’s journey was completed the afternoon of Friday, August 21, 2026, in the care of Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas.  At 85 years old and after a long, rich and full life, she was welcomed to heaven by her late husband Harry Donald Hawkins, her parents Gable and Veree Taylor Peppers, her siblings, her stepchildren, Sandra Gail Hawkins and Stephen Earl Hawkins, and bonus daughter Kristen Hinrichs Randolph. 

Cora leaves us with many special memories grounded in her faith in God and her belief that things will always be alright in due time.  We just need to be patient and take care of ourselves and others.  She spent this difficult summer surrounded by her Albuquerque and Dallas friends, her loving family, and the caring staff at Presbyterian Village North (The Terrace Assisted Living Community and The Rehabilitation Center).  She always had a smile or warm greeting for you and was still be-bopping to live music and winning candy at bingo even on the most challenging days.  Her loss to her community is deep and painful, but she would remind us that she loved us, loved God, encouraged everyone to always have a kind word for others, and she would tell us that we should not dwell very long in sorrow. 

Cora leaves to cherish her memory her daughter Veree Hawkins Brown (Dr. Bertrand James Brown, Jr.), grandaughter Ellen Taylor Veree Brown “Ellie”, grand-dog Miles Davis Brown (family Goldendoodle), and bonus children Dr. Belinda Mason, Dr. Gary Schallert (Amy), Michelle Coburn (Tony), Heather Langan (Brian Cone), Thomas Crowell, Timothy Reidy (Lesley), Jennifer Anderson (Bob), Ken Pasternak (Meghan Rand), Katie Hinrichs Godowski (Steve), Jack Hinrichs (Amanda), Jason Davis, and Harry Wilonsky, as well as many nieces, nephews, cousins, friends, Albuquerque Academy and Dartmouth kids, and bonus grandchildren that were all family to her. 

We will miss you Grammie more than you will ever know.  How lucky we were to spend very special time with you.  We know you are still watching over us with the angels.  Big hugs and kisses, love you, bisous—xoxo, your cheering squad. 

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