Chief Donnie G. Pickard

Chief of the Ovilla Fire Department, Donnie Glen Pickard lost his battle with cancer at Methodist Charlton Medical Center in Dallas on Tuesday evening at the age of 55. He was born in Waxahachie, Texas to Elmer Wilson and Margaret Juanita Curtis Pickard. He had lived his entire life in Ovilla and had been an active part of it's development. Donnie graduated from Midlothian High School in 1974 and became a Volunteer Fire Fighter in Ovilla that same year. He was named Ovilla Fire Chief in 1986 as a Volunteer and took the full time paid position in April of 2000. He was State Fire Fighter of the Year in 1998 and President of the SFFMA in 2008. He was also an instructor at the Fire Fighter Academy at Texas A.& M. He is survived by his wife, Karen Pickard of Ovilla, son, David Miller of New York City, NY, brother, Billy and wife Ava Pickard of Arlington, nieces and nephew, Elizabeth and Jeff Pevytoe, Emily Kennedy and David Pickard, multiple cousins, mother in law, Claudia Bell of Waco, TX, sisters in law and husband, Cindi and Bill Dubbs of Houston, nieces and their husbands, Courtney and Steve Stubblefield and Heather and John Douglas. Visitation will be from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Friday, May 4, 2012 at WEST/HURTT Funeral Home, 217 S. Hampton Rd., DeSoto. Funeral Services with Fire Department Honors will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday, May 5, 2012 at the Oaks Fellowship 777 S. Interstate 35 at Hwy 77 exit, Red Oak, TX 75154 with Rev. Vernon Sansom, Shiloh Cumberland Presbyterian Church, State Fire Chaplain Ben Kennedy and Mike Blake, officiating. Interment will follow at Shiloh Cemetery in Ovilla, TX. Memorials, in lieu of flowers, are encouraged to the Ovilla Fire Department, or the SFFMA Building Fund in Austin, TX. Pallbearers are, Phillip Brancato of the Midlothian Fire Department, Jim Hanson of Ovilla Fire Dept., David Allen of the Cedar Hill Fire Dept., Allen Russell, retired Fire Marshall of Cedar Hill, Tom Leverentz of the Ovilla Fire Dept. and Kevin Lucia of the Midlothian Fire Dept,, Honorary Pallbearers are Project 47, the sitting Executive Board of the SFFMA, the past presidents of the SFFMA, the Ovilla Fire Department and all other fire Departments.