Hilma Azell Ferguson Tomasini

Hilma Azell Ferguson Tomasini, age 93, of Grants Pass, Oregon, died June 16, 2014 at Royale Gardens Health & Rehabilitation Center.

A graveside service will be at 1:00 p.m., Monday, July 7, 2014 at Garden of Memories Memorial Park in Salinas, California with Pastor Allen Thomas officiating. Hull & Hull Funeral Directors are in charge of arrangements.

Remembrances may be made to Church of God, Salinas-Harvest Community Fellowship, 747 El Camino Real N., Salinas, California 93908. www.churchofgodsalinas.org

Hilma was born October 1, 1920 in Detroit, Alabama to Robert J. & Flora Lily Ferguson, the younger of two daughters. She attended Hamilton Elementary School, Byrd Junior High and graduated from Hamilton High School in 1939. She moved with her family to California that same year and attended college in Los Angeles where she met and in 1941 married Cecil S. Hicks. Their first daughter, Sandy was born in 1942 in Oceanside, California. The family then moved to Oklahoma to care for Cecil’s mother and in 1946 their second daughter Janis and in 1947 a son, James were born. After a divorce in 1952, Hilma moved to Salinas, California with her children to be near her parents. She then met and married, Henry Fort Inman and they later divorced. On May 26, 1967 she married Vernon E. Tomasini. She worked for Monterey County Juvenile Hall as head cook for 30 years retiring in 1983 to care for her mother. In 1994 she moved from Salinas to Grants Pass, Oregon.

Hilma was a member of the Monterey County Employees Association.

Her hobbies included playing bingo, checkers, dominos and yahtzee with family and gardening. She loved holiday family gatherings.

Hilma is survived by two children, Janis Elizabeth Davis and James Carl Hicks Sr both of Grants Pass, Oregon; a sister, Maxine Wilson of Orem, Utah; five grandchildren; 11 great-grandchildren; and five great-great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Vernon “Tommy” Tomasini on April 10, 2014; daughter, Sandra Jane Bell on October 19, 2013; and granddaughter, Cynthia Reeves on November 14, 2003.