Ruth Cannon Nichols

Ruth Cannon Nichols LITTLEFIELD -- Funeral services for Ruth Nichols, 71, will be at 2 p.m. Monday in Hammons Funeral Home Chapel with Paul Campbell of Tyler officiating. Burial will be in Littlefield Memorial Park by Hammons Funeral Home. Mrs. Nichols died at 12:45 p.m. Friday, May 6, 2005, in Lamb Healthcare Center in Littlefield. She was born July 21, 1933, in Hale County, the daughter of Thomas and Myrtle Cannon. She graduated from Cotton Center High School in 1951. During high school she was named Most Outstanding Player her junior and senior years. She was named to the all-tournament team of every tournament that Cotton Center competed in. After graduating high school, she played college basketball for the Wayland Flying Queens in Plainview where she established an all-time scoring record by a single player of 2,159 points and held that record until 1987. Helping the Queens gain early prominence in women's basketball, she could hit a hook shot with her right or left hand. She was selected All-American for three years while helping lead the Flying Queens to a 90-5 record and two National AAU Championships. In 1955, she played in the Second Pan American Games in Mexico City, Mexico. She was inducted into the Texas High School Basketball Hall of Fame in 1985 and into the Panhandle Sports Hall of Fame in 1988. In 1992, she was inducted into the Wayland Athletic Hall of Honor and in April 2000 she was selected as one of the 100 Sports Legends of the Panhandle. Survivors include three sons, Bobby Nichols of Mancos, Colo., and Russell Nichols and Joe Nichols, both of Lubbock; a daughter, Martha Leonard of Littlefield; a brother, Don Cannon of Hale Center; three sisters, Ruby Campbell of Tyler, Dorothy Belcher of Arlington and Bonnie King of College Station; seven grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren. The family suggests memorials to the American Cancer Society.