Barbara Bishop

Barbara Bishop age 92 passed away Palm Sunday March 24, 2024. The daughter of Delmar McCollum and
Doyle Hendrix McCollum, Barbara Jean McCollum was born February 4, 1932 in Amarillo, Texas. She graduated
from Sherman High School in 1949 where she picked up the nickname “Smokey” that her close friends used
throughout her life time. She met Edward Christian Hotz Jr., a 1950 graduate of the Naval Academy who was
commissioned in the Air Force. He was stationed at the old Perrin Air Force Base in Sherman.

They married June 16, 1951 at Chandler Air Force Base Arizona where he trained as a fighter pilot. He flew in the Korean War
from November 1951 through December 1952. While he was in Korea their first son Edward Christian Hotz III
was born in June. He returned to Perrin Field in January 1953 and was killed in an F86 test flight May 5, 1953.
Barbara was pregnant with their second son James Christian Hotz who was born in October 1953. Her
grandmother Delilah Mae Smith Hendrix came to live with her to help raise Eddie and Jimmy while she worked
her way through college, graduating from Austin College with a Bachelor of Arts in 1959 and obtaining her
Masters in Teaching from Southeastern Oklahoma in 1965. She became a teacher in the Sherman Independent
School District in September 1959 and taught 27 years at Washington Elementary and 5 years at Dillingham
Intermediate, retiring in May 1991 having taught for 32 years. Barbara married Richard Dale “Dick” Bishop July
7, 1960. They spent many happy days together at Lake Texoma. Daughter Karen Lea Bishop was born in June
1963.

After over 41 years of marriage, Dick passed away December 2001. He had been with Grayson Motors in
Sherman since the late 50s. Barbara loved Sherman and never wanted to move away. She had so many past
students and friends there. She was cheerful and hospitable, a life-long servant and caregiver to others never complaining. Donnie, one of her twin brothers, was born with severe cerebral palsy spending his entire life in a wheelchair. Her father was a paraplegic after a skiing accident, her father-in-law suffered with Alzheimer’s, she cared for her mother in old age, and she was the primary caregiver for long time family friend Curtis Knight when he became a quadriplegic the last five years of his life. Barbara was preceded in death by parents Delmar McCollum and Doyle “Suzie” Miller, husbands Ed Hotz Jr. and R. D. Bishop, twin brothers Del and Don McCollum, and son Jimmy Hotz. She is survived by son Ed Hotz III and wife
Sandy, daughter Karen Bishop, daughter-in-law Nancy Hotz, eight grandchildren, nineteen great-grandchildren,
nephew Kurt McCollum and niece Kim Lowry. She loved them all.