Joyce Hardage

Funeral service for Joyce Hardage will be 2 p.m., Monday, August 22, at New Hope Church of God with the Reverend Mark Tincher officiating. Burial will follow at Chelsea Cemetery under the direction of Musgrove-Merriott-Smith Funeral Service & Crematory. Visitation will be held at the funeral home Sun. 1-6 p.m., and family will greet friends 4-6 p.m.

Joyce died Friday, August 19, 2011, at Claremore Regional Hospital at the age of 91.

The daughter of William and Flora (Widmer) Rose was born March 2, 1920, in Lipscomb County, Texas. She was one of ten children and the 6th child to grace the Rose home. The Rose children went to a little rural country school, Valley Park. Sometimes they rode the 2 or 3 miles in a buggy pulled by one horse. By the time Joyce was in the 7th grade she rode horseback, along with her brother and sister. The family later purchased a house in Booker, TX, where the school age kids attended school. On the weekends they went back to the farm. Joyce attended West Texas State College in Canyon, TX, for three years. At the age of 21, she taught school in Glazier, TX, where she met Fred Rex Hardage at a Halloween party at the Hardage home. They married on May 31, 1942, at her parent’s home near Booker, TX. Later while teaching school in Westville, OK, she attended summer school until she received her degree from Northeastern State University in Tahlequah. Joyce taught in Oklahoma schools in Adair and Rogers County. She taught at Westside Elementary School in Claremore for 20 years. She retired in 1981 after 31 years in the classroom. Rex and Joyce loved the rural life, and made their home in the Chelsea area on a small ranch. She loved to fish, play Chicken Foot, read, correspond with her relatives by letter or phone, and visit with her two sons and their families. She also enjoyed painting. At the age of 13, Joyce was saved at the Full Gospel Church in Booker, TX. She was a member of New Hope Church of God in Claremore, where she taught Sunday School.

Joyce is preceded in death by Rex, her husband of 59 years, who passed away March 27, 2001; her parents; sisters: Elma Rives, Vea Fillingim, Willa Fillingim, and Eda Bynum; and brothers: Virgil Lowell Rose and Houston August Rose.

Survivors include her sons: David Rex Hardage and wife, Carolyn Sue of Greenfield, MO, and Calvin Hardage and wife, Sharon Kay of Chelsea, OK; grandchildren: Debra Darrough and husband, Danny of Greenfield, MO, Anita Price and husband, Trampas of Chelsea, Courtney Hardage of Greenfield, MO, Cal Hardage and wife, Debbie of Chelsea, Dr. Steve Hardage and wife, Tracie of Claremore, and Carrie Trahan and husband, Joe of Chelsea; 21 great-grandchildren; and sisters: Faye Sell of Amarillo, TX, Elton Teeter and husband, Pat of Prescott, AZ, and Gay Andler of Breaux Bridge, LA.