Norma Jean (Baughn) Boles, age 92 of Strawberry, Arkansas passed away on February 5, 2022, at her home, surrounded by the family she loved dearly.
Born to Bill and Ruby Baughn in Tuckerman, Arkansas on January 4, 1930, at the height of the Great Depression, Noma Jean (Jean to her close family), bloomed wherever she was planted.
A gifted seamstress, Norma made clothes for her family and others in the community for many years. She pieced and hand-quilted dozens of masterpiece quilts, and her hand-crocheted family names still decorate dozens of homes across the country; it was her signature gift for wedding showers.
Norma loved to work in her vegetable and flower gardens and shared fresh, canned, and frozen vegetables with her friends and family, who could count on always receiving more if you returned her jars. If you didn’t, she was slightly less giving. Her shared starts for perennial flowers that adorn hundreds of yards and gardens. Her sweet gherkin pickles were often “the gift” to steal at the family’s annual dirty Santa event. Her corn, fried chicken, fried okra, and sweet tea were potluck favorites, which was evidenced by the empty bowls at the end of each meal.
Norma became a Christian after she married, and she taught children’s Bible classes until she was forty, at which point she was asked to teach the ladies’ Bible class. Initially, she declined, thinking she couldn’t stand up in front of a class of adults, but gathering courage from her daughter, Juda, she began teaching and went on to serve the ladies’ Bible class at the Strawberry Church of Christ for almost fifty years. One of her favorite verses was, “Study to shew thyself approved until God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth,” (II Timothy 2:15). While she was an active member of the church for her entire adult life, her Christianity was evidenced through her daily kindness and generosity, taking to heart the Lord’s instruction to love the Lord your God with all your heart, and your neighbor as yourself.
Norma Jean is survived by eight of her nine children: Ina Lee Henley of Batesville, AR, Jerry Boles (Vikki) of Batesville, AR, Juda Widener (Darrin) of Conover, NC, Billy Boles (Pam) of Sulphur Rock, AR, Linda Baker (Steve) of Strawberry, AR, Kathaleen Miller (Andy) of Jonesboro, AR, Luanne Gregory (Don) of Batesville, AR, and Tommie Boles (Sherry) of West Plains, MO.
She is also survived by one sister, Melba Sowell of Poplar Bluff, MO, and three brothers, Dale Baughn of Tuckerman, AR, Marshall Baughn of Monticello, AR, and Mack Baughn of Tulsa, OK. She leaves behind twenty-one grandchildren, thirty great-grandchildren and seven great-great-grandchildren, as well as numerous nieces, nephews, friends, and extended family.
In addition to her parents, Norma was preceded in death by her husband of forty years, James Tommie (J.T.) Boles, a son, James Truman Boles, two grandsons, David Henley and Jake Miller, and one sister, Wanda Lee Williamson.
A visitation will be held on Friday, February 11th at the Strawberry Church of Christ at 12:30, prior to the funeral at 2:00. Burial will follow at the Mt. Zion Cemetery in Newark.
Her grandsons, Bryan Henley, Mark Henley, Nathan Boles, Greg Fowler, Brad Davis, Landon Miller and Colton Gregory will serve as pallbearers, and her granddaughters, Terri Hall, Deana Bush, Jennifer Hunsucker, Beverly Ball, B. J. Combee, Kali Craft, Whitney Miller, Carmen Miller, Taylor Gregory, Emerald Gregory, Shakara Woodley, Shalena Stephens, and Shayla Boles will all serve as honorary pallbearers.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorials be made to Truth for Today or The Timothy Hill Children’s Home, both works she loved and supported for many years.
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