Kezia Jane Hallmark, Dec 14, 1955 ~ Feb 14, 2021
Kezia was born the second child to Gene Howard Hallmark of Dickson, OK and Martina Cooper Hallmark of Alamogordo, NM while Howard worked for the Public Health Department in Pendleton, OR. Kezia started as a sickly child with many significant allergies and asthma, but with love and support from her family, grew into a normal schoolgirl. She played clarinet in the school band and even marched in the Rose Parade with the Vista High Panther Guard Band in 1973. She attended David Lipscomb University in Nashville, TN, graduating with a Bachelor’s in History and German. With a lifelong passion for the German language, peoples and culture, she moved to Wiesbaden, West Germany after graduation to work with children and teenage girls. Eventually, she moved to El Paso, TX and then bought her Grandparents’ home in Alamogordo, NM where she lived for the past 25 years. She received a Master’s Degree in Elementary School Reading and then a Master’s in English as a Second Language to enhance her work in the Alamogordo Public Schools, where she coordinated the ESL Department, teaching immigrant children in Alamogordo and children of foreign soldiers stationed at Holloman Air Force Base. Kezia also taught ESL courses for university students at New Mexico State University Alamogordo. She taught children all her life at school and church. Never married, her school and church children were her family! She was a life-long member of the churches of Christ.
Kezia is survived by her friends and family, Irma Pacheco, her best friend and neighbor for decades; Howard Haskell Hallmark, brother and preacher, Rio Rancho, New Mexico; Arah Faye Hallmark Barham, sister and clinical resource nurse, Chico, CA; James Raymond Hallmark, brother and university administrator, College Station, TX; and Gene Howard Hallmark, father and retired preacher, Belton, TX. Her brother James said it well, “She spent her life teaching ESL to immigrant kids and teaching little kids at church. That’s not a bad way to spend a life.”
The Hallmark family has entrusted their loved one to the care of Alamogordo Funeral Home. Services are pending.
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