The grandmother and Air Force veteran was so valued by the Fort Hood community that somebody even created a Facebook page in appreciation of her special gesture toward soldiers. When the American-Statesman wrote a profile of her in 2010, she already had hugged more than 500,000 soldiers, according to Fort Hood estimates.
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Another home had a partially torn roof, while another was damaged so badly that only one exterior wall survived the tornado. In far West Texas, up to four inches of snow fell overnight in the Alpine area, with foot-deep drifts reported.
At a later date, Laird will be laid to rest in a private ceremony at the Central Texas State Veterans Cemetery.
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She was 83 years old and had been battling breast cancer since 2005.
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Without that play, the Bills punt and then pray. “It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t ideal by any means”, Taylor said. That was Buffalo’s last playoff year, but Flutie had the NFL’s No. 1 defense, not No. 21.
Scores of soldiers returned the favor by visiting Laird, showing those hugs really did mean something.
Laird, however, had her own personal battle to fight.
There’s now an online petition to have the deployment center at Fort Hood named for Elizabeth Laird – the Hug Lady.
Laird began hugging soldiers in June 2003, shortly after the USA invasion of Iraq.
“When they enter the room, they give me a hug and then we talk about anything from their family to what it was like overseas or if they got a civilian job upon returning”, Laird told TODAY.com on November 20.
“It was a different time back then”, she added. “She’s touched this many people in that way with just a simple hug”.
Services are pending with Crawford-Bowers Funeral Home of Copperas Cove. For more than a decade, she has been personally saying farewell to our troops as they deploy and greeting them as they return.
Many soldiers would visit her at the hospital and show her a little love and she also received a letter from former president George W. Bush. “Our thoughts and prayers are with her family and loved ones; she will be deeply missed”, public affairs officer for III Corps, Col. Christopher C., said Friday in a statement.
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In a 2011 profile of Laird, the Fort Hood Sentinel referred to her as “a bit of a celebrity to the soldiers”.
