MANLEY HARDIN Obituary – Sept. 12, 1938 – Nov. 6, 2020

Yarris Manley Hardin, Jr., 82, of Henderson passed away Nov. 6, 2020 at his home.
Funeral services were 11 a.m. Tuesday at Shackelford Funeral Directors – Crook Avenue Chapel with Bro. Ronnie Geary and Dr. Bill Sims officiating. 
Burial followed at Chester County Memory Gardens.
The family received friends at the funeral home from 5-8 p.m. Monday. Memorials may be made to Gideon’s International.   
He was born Sept. 12, 1938, the son of the late Yarris and Elsie Canovan Hardin. He was a graduate of Bolivar High School, Union University (1961) and served two years in the United States Army, Rank SP4 E4.
His places of employment included management positions at Kilgore, Milan Arsenal, Chester Manufacturing, Kellwood in Frederick, Okla., and retiring from Quality Manufacturing in 2001.
He became a Gideon in 1980, distributing bibles in various places such as Chicago, universities and schools and local communities as well as speaking in churches about Gideon’s International. He was a member of the First Baptist Church in Bemis in which he taught a men’s Sunday school class. 
He enjoyed woodworking, making cross key chains, candy boxes, passing out bibles, passing out candy and gum to children, teaching Sunday school classes, working with Operation Christmas Child and Appalachian Ministry.
He loved his nickname his grandson Clay gave him when he was a little boy, “Buddy,” and it has stuck all these years.
He is survived by his wife, Betty Jane (Honey) Stewart Hardin of Henderson; a son, Deryl Stewart of Henderson; four daughters, Renee (Chad) Lott of Henderson, Allison (Lloyd) Jones of Lexington, Michelle (Glynn) Lott of Cecil, Ala., and Nancy (Duane) Lowery of Haynesville, Ala.; 15 grandchildren; 11 great-grandchildren; and two sisters, Ann (Jack) Taylor of Medon and Helen (Butch) Blanq of Jackson.
He was preceded in death by his parents and his sister, Gloria Irene (Sis) Hardin.