C4
W O M E N ’ S H I ST O RY M O N T H
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5, 2025 | KILLEEN DAILY HERALD
Killeen septuagenarian continues life of service despite ongoing serious health issues Maria Garcia surrounded by her grandchildren (left to right): Jimmy Garcia, Kinan McElroy, Korey McElroy and Sophia Garcia.
BY JOHN CLARK HERALD CORRESPONDENT
Maria Garcia came to the U.S. in 1963 as a 16-year-old old exchange student from Germany, started working as a hair stylist two years later, and continues to cut hair twice a week at a salon in Killeen. Not only that, the now 77-yearold has volunteered to provide complimentary hair services for hundreds of homebound clients and nursing home residents over the years, and she has done it in spite of having cancer three different times and undergoing 20 surgeries, including a recent emergency procedure to repair complications from a colonoscopy. “God has brought me through all this, so I want to help other people who need help,” Garcia said. “I get more out of it than they do. It is really helpful to me to be able to help people who needed me.” When she left Germany for the United States, Maria arrived on one of the country’s most historic days. She was sponsored by a U.S. Army colonel, but when her plane landed at the airport in Dallas, there was no one there to greet her. “I actually arrived in Dallas the day (President John F.) Kennedy got shot (November 22, 1963),” she said. “The colonel who was my sponsor, and who I was going to live with, was not there to pick me up. I thought,
COURTESY PHOTO
‘Oh, my gosh, they forgot I was coming.’ “So I went up to a lady and asked if she could help me. I said, ‘This is such an emotional country,’ because men were crying; women were crying. She said, ‘You didn’t hear what happened?’ “Apparently, they had barricaded coming through Dallas, and so they had to come around through Fort Worth or Arlington to get to the airport to pick me up. That was my introduction.” After settling in her new home in Killeen, Garcia started going to high school, where she was
part of the first class to graduate from what was then a brand new Killeen High in 1965. She also attended Central Texas College, but it was an otherwise routine trip to get her hair trimmed that sent her life in a new direction. “I had always wanted to work but in Germany it’s not like here where at 16 you can go get a job,” she said. “You would go to a trade school and then work. I came from a line of teachers and my parents always told me to get my education first. I was going to go back to Germany and teach English. “I used to go to Elena’s down
on Avenue D to get my hair trimmed, and one time I said to Elena, ‘I wish I could do this,’ and she said, ‘If you’re willing to put forth the effort, go to beauty school during the summer and I’ll give you a job.’ So I ran home, told the colonel, and he said, ‘I’ve got to call your dad first.’ “I said, ‘Oh, no, I probably won’t even like it.’ But I loved it and I got my license. She gave me a job, and my dad was very upset. I worked for Elena’s and then I was manager for Elena’s number 2. I met her son, Gus Garcia, and we fell in love and got married. We were married 13 years and then we got divorced.” After working for Elena’s, Maria opened Foxy Lady Hair Designs on Florence Road and owned that salon for 10 years. Her dad got sick back in Germany and she went home for six weeks, then came back and continued operating the business for a while until his condition deteriorated and she needed to get back home. She tried to lease the business but wound up selling it. Now, she works two days a week at Cinnabar Hair Design on Trimmier. She has been cutting hair so long that she has clients who are the children of longtime customers. Asked about Women’s History Month and what it means to her, Garcia said it is important to recognize and honor the con-
tributions women have made throughout history. “Women play such an important role in our life. We are caretakers; we understand; we help,” she said. “Women do so much. I feel they contribute so much to the country.” As she recovers from yet another hospital stay, Maria says she feels blessed and grateful to be alive. After being single for 48 years, she was married for five years to the late John Idoux, who served here as executive director for the former Tarleton State University-Central Texas, and was instrumental in helping establish Texas A&M University-Central Texas in Killeen, a part of the Texas A&M University system. He died last April. A proud mother of two and grandmother of four, Maria says she looks forward to getting back to helping people as long as she is able to do so. Oh, and she also would not mind seeing a great-grandchild or two join the family. “God has blessed me with two great Christian kids, and four great Christian grandkids. I cannot complain,” she said. “I told my granddaughter, who graduated with her master’s last year, I said, ‘Sophia, the one thing Oma wants before she dies or can’t function anymore, is a great-grandbaby.’ “She looked at me and she said, ‘But, Oma, you know I have to get married first.’