JEAN T. HASTINGS
Jean T. Hastings, age 95, passed away on Jan. 23, 2026, in Idalou, Texas. Memorial services will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, March 21, 2026, at the Moore-Rose Funeral Home Chapel in Idalou.
Billie Jean Turner was born at home on Nov. 24, 1930. She was a Wellington, Texas native. She attended school in Quail, Texas. On Dec. 20, 1947, Jean married the love of her life, Pat Hastings, and gave birth to her son, Pat, on June 2, 1949.
Jean had numerous jobs, including pulling cotton at age 9. (She was quite proud of the fact that she was just as strong as any boy or man.) Jean was a clever businesswoman and owned several small businesses. When an opportunity arose to start a new business adventure, she eagerly accepted the challenge and wholeheartedly invested herself to ensure success.
Pat and Jean moved to Idalou in 1957 to be closer to the Hastings family and opened the Hastings Café. In 1967, Jean and Pat started their antique career by selling barbed wire and insulators. Instantly, Jean realized that those trinkets were hot commodities and exactly what the tourists desired. The Hastings Antique Store is definitely an iconic landmark for Idalou.
Jeans’s Hobbies included going to garage sales, estates sales and collecting beautiful things. Jean would travel to Oklahoma, Arizona, New Mexico and several other states to purchase antiques. Jean stated, “She loved her customers and her customers loved her.” Antiquing was not just a job for Jean; it was her way of life! When Jean wasn’t spending countless hours labeling items, she was researching antique publications in order to price her newest treasures. Jean could be compared to a walking encyclopedia, resourceful, sharp as tack and quite witty.
The Cowboy Symposium was a special event that Jean would proudly attend. Jean definitely stood out in a crowd, decked out in brightly colored shirts, skirts, boots, western jewelry and her notorious western hat. As she shared this event with several family members and friends, her enthusiasm and excitement were contagious as you walked from wagon to wagon, remembering our history of how our ancestors once lived on the land and survived. Jean would collect authentic items all year long to sell to the cowboys to outfit the chuck wagons. Jean wanted to ensure that the wagons were historically correct. Heritage and accuracy were very important to Jean.
Jean was a Christian and member of the First Baptist Church in Idalou. She had a tender heart for children and gave monthly to the Boys Ranch, Girls and Boys Town and Indian reservations.
Jean was incredibly independent, focused, driven, outspoken, compassionate and kind. Her goal in life was to be a successful businesswoman, and she achieved that goal. There will never be another Jean Hastings, and we will miss her humor, passion and determination, all of which she maintained through the very end of her time on Earth.
Jean is preceded in death by her husband, Pat Hastings; son Pat Hastings; parents Mildred (Squirrely) and Doc Turner; a sister, Jaquetta Givens; a brother, Delmar Doc Turner; and daughter-inlaw Gwen Hastings.
Jean is survived by her cousins, nieces, nephews and also friends that she considered family.
