Maxine Horak Winslow died peacefully June 13, 2005 at a nursing center in Houston. Born Marion Maxine Greene on November 28, 1916, in Fredonia, Kansas, she graduated from Byrd High School and Centenary College in Shreveport, Louisiana. She was the high school drum major and voted best girl dancer. In college, she was a Chi Omega and regularly sang on radio programs with big bands of the era, including Les Brown and his Band of Reknown. Maxine was a college cheerleader, which brought her to Adolph Horak's attention. A star both in the backfield and as defensive end, Adolph was captain of the nationally known Centenary Gentlemen football team. It literally was love at first sight between the handsome football star and the beautiful cheerleader.After college, Maxine and Adolph moved to Buffalo and then Niagra Falls, New York, where he was principal of several General Tire stores. They moved to Corpus Christi in 1948, establishing Horak Floor Coverings, which grew to seven locations, and several other businesses. Maxine was the consummate wife and mother of her generation. Incredibly well organized and energetic, she raised three well-behaved children and maintained an immaculate house and loving home while being very actively engaged in community and civic affairs.Diminutive in size, Maxine possessed amazing strength of character and resiliency of spirit. Her love of dancing and singing was life long. She was a founding member of Mariners Dance Club, which held dances on the T-Heads in the 1950s, and belonged for 50 years to the Corpus Christi Country Club and loved the regular dance evenings there. Long active in community affairs, she chaired the Midshipmen's Ball at NAS; was instrumental in the formative years of Ada Wilson Hospital and the Little Theatre of Corpus Christi (now Harbor Playhouse); and founded the Candy Stripers Auxiliary at a local hospital. Maxine was an active member of St. Luke's Methodist Church and loved to play bridge and to needlepoint. Her first husband, Adolph Alois Horak, and her second husband, Robert Clark Winslow, preceded her in death. Survivors include her sister, Marje Frisbie of Tulsa, Oklahoma; daughters, Joy Alois Horak-Brown and Carole Dawn Wolf of Houston, Texas; son James Ray Horak, Mt. Vernon, Washington; grandchildren: Brenna Joy Horak, Dallas, Texas, Sgt. James Barrett Horak (USMC) Ramadi, Iraq; and great granddaughter, Breanna Horak of Marshall.Graveside services will be held at Seaside Memorial Park at Noon Saturday, June 18, 2005.

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