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This is a petition to honor Miss Elizabeth (the Fort Hood Hug Lady) by posthumously renaming the Fort Hood Deployment center the Elizabeth Laird Deployment Center. Miss Elizabeth has doled out more than half a million hugs to soldiers leaving and coming home from Ft. Hood. She's touched so many lives. For some, her's was the last hug that they had on this earth. For others, her's was the first good thing that happened to them when they got home. She was there days, nights, weekends, holidays... rain or shine, Miss Elizabeth was there for our troops. And she did...

COPPERAS COVE – Elizabeth Laird ‘The Hug Lady’ passed away Thursday at Metroplex Hospital. Laird made it her mission to hug every single soldier as they boarded planes to deploy and waited with a hug when they returned to welcome them home. She was 83 years-old. Services are pending with Crawford-Bowers Funeral Home of Copperas Cove.

A 78 year old financial planner in Killeen has a second job in which she receives...and gives...a lot of love. Laird, who stands 4' 11" tall, is on hand when every deployment of soldiers leaves Ft. Hood to Iraq or Afghanistan, and is there when every plane load of soldiers returns. She hugs every one of them, sometimes having to stand on her tip-toes to do it. "I'm out there because I love our soldiers and I want to support them," she told 1200 WOAI news. "This is how I can make sure they know somebody supports them." Laird, who...