Dr. Von Hilliard

Dr. Rhonda Yvonne Burr Hilliard, age 72, of Waco, passed away peacefully in her sleep. A Celebration of Life Service will be Saturday, July 26 at 11 AM at Waco Memorial with Dr. Jimmy Hunter officiating. Burial will be in-service committal.

Dr. Rhonda Yvonne Burr Hilliard was born January 16th, 1953 in Palestine, Texas at the Anderson County Myrtle Hospital to Allen Burr, Jr and Elise Burr. She and her sisters were military kids and for a short time went to school in Fort Raleigh, Kansas. Her family moved to Waco to create a home at 412 Dearborn St. Von graduated from George Washington Carver High School in Waco Texas and then went off to Durham Business College in Fort Worth Texas. Later she received her Bachelor's Degree at Paul Quinn in Dallas. Afterwards, she spent some time in Alabama which is where her beautiful daughter Kelishia Haywood-Lott was born, and not long after that she moved to Anchorage, Alaska where she worked as an HR employee for the City of Anchorage. The snow would get so high there, that it would pile as high as the park swing seat and Kelishia who was about 2 yrs old at the time fell through the snow off the swings and Von had to dig her out of that snow!

Von later moved back to Waco being hired by Marathon Battery as an HR assistant for a few years. A better position at Hercules became available in 1978 and this is where she met, fell in love with, and ultimately married her surviving husband John Hilliard on December 30, 1983. Von remained at Hercules until 1995 when they closed down. Von is a go getter and while working at Hercules she was also a Certified Group Fitness Instructor from around 1990 to 1994. Syzygy saw her talents and hired her as an HR manager in 1997 and she worked there until 2005. She took a short break and helped her husband in business until she decided to take a job offer from PCA (Packing Corporation of America) as HR director from 2005 to 2022.

Here's a fun story of how she became the HR Director at PCA: The Plant Manager Joe invited Rhonda and John to dinner with his family along with Tony the Operations Manager. While they were there enjoying each other's company and just talking amongst themselves, John took notice of Joe's family reaching over occasionally and getting food from Joe and Tony's plate so eventually John, deciding that this must be normal behavior, decided to reach over and try something from Joe's and Tony's plate. Joe in shock says "Wait a minute!! I can't believe you reached into Tony and my plate! You know what I like you, You're my kind of people, the job is yours Rhonda no need to go any further" After speaking with Joe, the Plant Manager she was hired on location. PCA is where she finally retired to enjoy some rest and relaxation.

Being the go getter that she is, she picked up a new love for writing publishing several books and became a writer for a couple of spiritual school organizations. She also decided to go after her Master's Degree and with grit and determination received her PhD. So she is now DOCTOR Rhonda Yvonne Hilliard!

She is survived by her loving husband of 42 years, John Hilliard; her 4 daughters Kelishia Haywood-Lott (Phillip), Kristy Hilliard, Kimberly Hilliard-Hendrix (Ruben) and Kendee Hilliard;10 grandchildren; her 2 sisters, Harolyn Baker, Dorothy Ann Rush (Steve); her nieces, Nichelle Morant, Veda Brown, Katrina Johnson, Kristian Ann Johnson; and her nephews, Stevie Rush, Victor Rush, Gerald Burr, Jr., and Eric Johnson.