Christ Community Covenant Church

Harry and Donna Hughes

No one who has been a member of Christ Community Covenant Church for any length of time is unfamiliar with the gifted Hughes family whose talents in music, voice, and dance have enhanced our worship for many years. But that rich legacy would not have been ours to enjoy if Harry hadn’t met Donna!

Donna Lee Mann, the daughter of Halia and Elmer Mann, was born on July 30, 1935 in La Junta, delivered at the family home by her grandmother! At age two Donna’s family moved to Las Vegas, NM where Elmer worked for the railroad. Their home was a railroad car on a side track and while dad worked, mother would cook for a crew of seventeen men. Their home was also Donna and older brother Stanley’s playground on wheels, and it often came with a different view as an occasional bump in the night by another railroad car would send them down the tracks to a new location! The family returned to La Junta where Elmer farmed for a while, but by the time Donna was in 1st grade they had moved to a home in Denver. A year later they bought a house in Wheat Ridge that had curiously thick walls. It soon discovered that the house had once been the stage coach stop between Denver and Golden and those walls had served as protection from Indian attacks! Here Elmer worked selling Watkins products, and the family raised pigs, chickens, and vegetables. Donna remembers that she and Stanley would pull a wagon load of their produce to sell nearby at Wild Bill’s trading post and their reward was a huge sack of candy for a penny!

Donna attended Columbia Heights Elementary through the 6th grade, then the old Wheat Ridge Junior High on 38th next to the high school. During her junior high years, Elmer’s health declined dramatically and he had to have a colostomy, a very new and difficult procedure at that time. His weight dropped from a strapping 205 to 135, and over a period of time he endured 17 operations, several of which the doctors did not expect him to survive. Halia would sew colostomy bags out of oilcloth as there was no plastic yet, and ripped and sterilized old bed sheets to bandage his incisions. While in the hospital, Elmer would talk with the doctors and nurses about his faith and lead many of them to the Lord. Donna knows that God was with him because, despite the doctor’s dire prognosis, Elmer would live another 36 years

Donna and Stanley walked the two miles to high school on dirt roads, and there were never any snow days! When Stanley was a senior he became the homecoming Blue and Gold King and two years later Donna would become the Queen, the first time a brother and sister had ever shared that honor! Donna loved art classes and journalism, and used those talents when she became the art editor of the year book. After graduating in 1953, Donna found a job as a secretary but didn’t like it. Stanley was attending college studying law and her parents couldn’t afford additional tuition for her, so she went to the Denver Art Academy and took a part time job in the office to help pay her tuition. Bent on a career in art, Donna worked in the student’s art supply store during lunch breaks and the Beth Eden Bible book store after classes. Ambitious and attractive, she also modeled western wear for buyers for additional tuition money, and graduated from art school in two years! Donna was ready to make her move, but before she left Denver her cousin asked if she would like to go on a blind date with a great guy he knew. In Donna’s mind blind dates never worked out. She declined.

Donna was 19 when she moved to Dallas, known for its fashion center. Her small apartment had no TV or phone and she had no car, so she literally pounded the pavement – in high heels - looking for an art job in the industry, but found nothing. One Sunday, after walking nine blocks to church, she slipped into an “over 30” Sunday School class by accident. That led to a conversation with a lady who took her home for dinner. Her new friend introduced Donna to her brother who encouraged her to apply to be a tour guide in the 40 story bank building where he worked in downtown Dallas. Donna did just that, and she and her new friend’s brother began dating!

There were models working in the fashion industry that supplemented their income as tour guides in the same building and they taught Donna more about modeling. She also used her talent to produce posters for evangelistic meetings at her church and one posted at the WMCA caught the eye of a young teacher named Carol who was visiting from Oregon for a few days. She attended one of the meetings and Donna introduced herself. After getting to know each other a bit she generously invited Carol to stay with her. Two days later Carol would decide to join Donna and two friends for a quick visit to Denver. Back home Donna introduced Carol to her brother who took one look and was smitten! Carol and Stanley were married 5 weeks later. During their visit Donna finally consented to a blind date with her cousin’s friend. On a July evening in 1956 at the local bowling alley, she spotted a tall, handsome, curly haired pilot and wished he was the guy. A few minutes later she was introduced to Harry Sides Hughes, Jr. and her wish came true! Donna returned to Dallas, but decided to move back to Denver a short time later and was finally able to use her talent drawing fashion ads for various stores for the Denver Post and began modeling for Denver Dry Goods and other companies. Donna was tall and pretty so it was not surprising that Harry began showing up at various fashion shows when she was working!

Harry was born in Farmington, Missouri on March 14, 1933, the second child born after older sister, Shirley, and younger brother Randy, to Helen and Harry Hughes, Sr. His father worked in the lead mines, then later found work as a barber in nearby Flat River. While very young Harry, Jr. learned farm work. He was smart and had skipped from 4th to the 6th grades so he quickly learned to operate all the farm machinery, pitched hay, deloused Arkansas razorback hogs, milked cows, filled coal oil lamps, hauled wood and made cottage cheese and cream for farm use (all before the age of 8)! Harry recalls that the result of such messy work usually called for a horseback ride to the nearby creek with a bar of LAVA soap!

When Harry was 12 his father made another career change and they moved to St. Louis where he sold cars and mother went to work for JC Penney. Two years later they moved to nearby Overland and Harry lied about his age to land a job in a grocery story where, at 15, he went to work every day after school. He played trumpet in the high school band and graduated in 1949 at the tender age of 16. In 1951 Harry enrolled at the University of Missouri and obtained an internship at McDonald Aircraft. After one year college was cut short when the Korean War started. Harry qualified for, and attended Navy Cadet School, but chose to join the Marine Corp after graduation in 1952. He caught the tail end of the war and flew missions in the South Pacific for several months. During one flight his plane caught fire, and after making sure that his co-pilot had ejected safely, he radioed their position and ejected into the skies near the Hawaiian island of Molokai. A spotter plane located them and a PT rescue boat picked up both pilots after several hours in the water in separate life rafts.

Harry left the service in 1956 but remained in the reserves for another four years. During his time away his parents had moved to Denver, so he came here to visit after being discharged. It was during this stay that Harry met Donna for the first time on that blind date. Donna returned to Denver and Harry decided not to go back to McDonald Aircraft in Missouri and joined Continental Airlines as a pilot instead. With both of them finally in the same place, things moved quickly and a year later Harry and Donna married on November 23, 1957 at Beth Eden Baptist Church proving that sometimes blind dates do work out!

Harry left Continental and joined the Martin Marietta Company attending night classes to become an industrial engineer. While there he worked in the space and ICBM programs, exciting work that gave him the chance to spend time at Cape Canaveral. Donna worked for an insurance company, but when they found that she was expecting their first child near the end of the year, she left her job just before Thanksgiving in order to have a few weeks rest before the baby came. First son, Creg, had other plans and made his unexpected appearance on Thanksgiving Day, November 26, 1959! Three years later, on Good Friday, April 20, 1962, the birth of second son, Tim, was a harrowing one for the couple. The baby was only 5 pounds and in critical condition at birth, but their amazing doctor determinedly massaged the tiny infant back to life in the operating room! The doctor pronounced that, “God must have something special planned for this little man!”

After the close call with Tim, Donna was advised not to have more children, and was surprised to find that she was expecting again only 8 months later. Harry was sent to work in the space program in Baltimore, but Donna, concerned about traveling in her condition, decided that she would stay in Denver with her parents until after the baby came. The company generously flew Harry back to Denver every weekend for several months to spend time with his family. After Chris was born on November 7, 1963, Donna and the children joined Harry for the greater part of his two years in Baltimore, but he began to see the “writing on the wall” in the space program and decided to give up his executive status and in 1965 moved the family back to Denver. Despite ill health, Donna’s father had opened a foundry and Harry joined his father-in-law in business after leaving Martin. His goal was to help build up the company with new designs and procedures until it would be profitable for Elmer to sell it. Once that happened, Elmer retired and Harry found a niche representing sporting goods companies selling to various store outlets in a six state area. He had six other reps working for him until 1995 when he retired (the first time).

When Creg was born the Hughes decided that Donna would stay at home and care for the children since Harry’s job often took him away for days and weeks at a time. They were blessed to have her! The boys loved sports and she became the quintessential “team mom”, supporting her sons rain or shine. When the boys left home Donna again joined the workforce. Before Christmas, 2000 she applied for a part time holiday position with Merle Norman cosmetics and was hired on the spot. She worked with the company for 5 years, attaining a management position in the Boulder market. In 2005 she moved on to represent the Elizabeth Arden line in stores for several more months, and retired at age 70. Meanwhile, Harry, who learned at an early age to fix just about anything, found a new calling doing building maintenance for churches, the City of Westminster, a Catholic nursing home, and the Westin Hotel. He retired a second time at age 72 but still helps out the neighbors with fix-it projects and is known to snow blow the entire neighborhood after winter storms.

During the past 10 years the Hughes have enjoyed their retirement and watching their nine grandchildren grow up and produce three great grandchildren! They have always taken great pride in their sons: Creg is an accomplished businessman, and he and wife Terri and their (now all married) daughters, Alicia, Karleen, Leah, and Jenise have been long time active members of 4 C’s; Tim is a minister and church planter in Parachute, and he and wife Christi have three children - Brittany, Caleb and Nicole; son Chris, who was a gifted artist, passed away in 2006, but is loved and remembered through his two daughters, Jena and Hailey. Along with babysitting, traveling has been the Hughes other favorite thing and they have traveled to many interesting places inside and outside the U.S.

Donna gave her heart to Lord at age 9 while attending Beth Eden Baptist and has always felt that God was by her side. Harry was raised in the Methodist Church but gave his life to the Lord at Beth Eden while he and Donna were dating. Their faith has carried the Hughes through many difficult times including the death of Harry’s brother at 29, through Elmer’s lengthy illness and death in 1987, many extended times apart, and especially when they lost Chris. During that dark time in particular, God was faithful and gave Donna a vision reassuring her that their son was ok. In high school, when her father was very ill and in tremendous pain, a friend who deeply admired his faith and strength told Donna, “God never chooses a coward to carry His banner”. Understanding that has taken them through the toughest days. They believe, “that no matter what happens in life, lean on the Lord through it all and keep the faith”. Harry and Donna have done just that, and their life has been richly blessed because of it. ?