Alice Erwin Hallum Childs

Services were held Tuesday for Alice Erwin Hallum Childs, 97, who died Jan. 30 in Fairfield. Evangelist Don Thornton led the services, held at Capps Memorial Chapel. Interment followed at Fairfield Cemetery.

Mrs. Childs was born March 18, 1912 in Athens to parents John and Edna Woodson Hallum. She graduated from North Texas State Teachers College in Denton with a teaching certificate. She also graduated from Jefferson Davis Hospital Nursing School in 1930 with a Registered Nurse degree.

She was an ensign in the U.S. Navy Nurse Corp stationed at the U.S. Naval Hospital in Long Beach, California, where, following the attack on Pearl Harbor, she met Chief Petty Officer Tilden Robert Childs who was wounded while serving aboard the U.S.S. Vestal which was tied up to the U.S.S. Arizona during the attack.

The couple married on October 29, 1943. In 1952 Mrs. Childs continued her education and graduated from East Texas State University in Commerce with a bachelor of science degree in sociology. She worked as a nurse in Houston, Teague, Wortham and Fairfield.

Mrs. Childs was preceded in death by her husband in 1992 after 49 years of marriage. A brother, John Hallum and two sisters, Elizabeth Workman and Grey Dillard, also preceded her in death.

Survivors include two children, Sara Nelson and husband Terry of Corsicana and Tilden Robert Childs, Jr. of Fairfield, two sisters, Ruby Miller and Doris Bridge, both of Athens; three grandchildren, Brandon, Brooke and Blaire Nelson and numerous nieces and nephews.

To view an online obituary, send a personalized sympathy card, or leave the family a personal tribute, visit the website at www.cappschapel.com.