Gail Jean (Crenshaw, Huelster) Hallmark (July 5, 1938 – August 6, 2024)
Long-time Raton resident and elementary schoolteacher Gail Jean Hallmark, 86, passed peacefully away on August 6, 2024, in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Her memorial is set for Saturday, August 17, at United Methodist Church, 31082 US Highway 64, Cimarron. An informal reception with light lunch is to begin at 11 a.m., followed at noon by religious services, then interment and graveside remembrance at Cimarron’s Mountain View Cemetery.
Gail was born in Cimarron on July 5, 1938, to Thomas P. “Tom” and Martha Irene Crenshaw. She devoted much of her life to teaching, bringing a special gift for inspiring little ones to read, but was also a successful businesswoman in two countries, a natural-born traveler who saw much of the U. S. and the world, and a bilingual, people-loving friend to anyone who met her.
Her first marriage was to Alfred L. “Dutch” Huelster in 1957, with whom she had three children: Vickie Lee, Kim Page, and Michael Lynn “Mike” Huelster. Soon after their marriage, Gail and her second husband Cleo C. Hallmark settled in Raton in 1974, where she’s resided since and tutored at least two generations of little scholars.
Gail was preceded in death by her parents, husband, brother William T. “Bill” Crenshaw, and grandson Daniel Huelster.
Survivors include her daughter Vickie (Dan Key) and sons Kim (Lydia) and Michael (Nora); brother John D. Crenshaw (Mary), Santa Fe; granddaughters Laura M. (Huelster) Taylor (Marshall), Dalhart, TX; Katy Huelster Perez (Juan, “JP”), and great-granddaughter Mia Grace Perez, Amarillo, TX; Jacquey Huelster, Amarillo; Amanda (Huelster) Elizondo (Miguel), Los Lunas; nieces Darcy Crenshaw (Steve Maurice) and Chelsea Crenshaw (Christopher Newman) and great nieces and nephew Grace, Julia and Finn Maurice, all of Santa Fe.
IN LIEU OF FLOWERS Contributions may be mailed to the Raton Humane Society, P.O. Box 1321, Raton NM 87704, or made online via venmo@Raton-HumaneSociety.
