Ruby "Nell" (Burns) Hardin

Funeral services for Ruby “Nell” Hardin, 90, of Arch will be held at 10:00 AM, Thurs., July 10, 2025 in the Wheeler Mortuary Chapel with Rev. Wesley McAfee officiating.  Burial will follow in the Portales Cemetery with her grandchildren serving as pallbearers.

Ruby Nell Hardin was born Mar. 27, 1935 in Big Spring, TX to the home of Beaulah Mae (Smith) and Walter Looper Burns, and died on the morning of July 7, 2025 in Portales, NM.  She and her family moved to Arch, NM in 1949.  While living here, she became acquainted with R. B. Hardin.  The family moved back to Big Spring a year later, and Mr. Hardin went down to tell her father that he wanted to marry her.  Her father said she couldn’t marry until she was 15.  So, as soon as she had her birthday, they came back to Portales and were married on April 8, 1950.  Over the years, they moved back and forth between Big Spring and Portales, but in 1959, they moved to Arch for the final time.

Mrs. Hardin worked alongside of her husband raising peanuts and cattle.  In addition, she always had a huge garden, raising and canning a variety of vegetables including black-eyed peas, okra, and corn among other things.  She also was a quilter, and had won numerous ribbons for her canned goods and quilts at the county fair.  Nell also made shirts for her four sons, and sewed different colored threads in their white socks to designate who they belonged to.

Mrs. Hardin was a faithful member of the Arch Baptist Church where she took an active part in the life of the congregation and sang in the choir.  In later years, she was privileged to travel with her daughter-in-law to various places including Alaska.

She is survived by her four sons and daughters-in-law, Wayne and Carol Hardin of Lubbock, Bo and Kim Hardin of Clovis, Donny and Brenda Hardin of Arch and Richard and Janice Hardin of Portales.  There are 21 grandchildren, 47 great-grandchildren and 6 great-great-grandchildren; and a sister, Louise Baker of San Antonio, TX.  She was preceded in death by both of her parents, a sister, Betty Homfield and by her beloved husband, R. B. Hardin on Sept. 13, 2005 after more than 55 years of marriage.

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