Aline Haden

Aline Baker Haden began her quiet, ordinary, simple life in the rural community of Pansy in Navarro County on September 21, 1916. Her parents, Ira Lee and Juanita Bunch Baker were cotton farmers, so Aline learned early on how to swiftly use her hands to fill those cotton sacks. Graduating from Bryan High School (Navarro County) in the heart of the Depression, she went on to further her education by attending Beauty College in Dallas. There she trained those busy hands to shampoo, set, curl and perm. That same year, 1939, she married her sweetheart, Clovis Haden and moved to Houston so that he could find work in the shipyards .Together they lived a simple life, scrimping and saving to be able to buy a farm of their own., During this time, their first two sons were born, Roland in 1940 and Jimmy in 1943. Returning to Dresden in 1946, they spent their first year back home living in a tiny shack on family land till they could finally realize their dream of owning their own place. It was here that their third son, David, was born in 1947, and it was shortly after this that the family moved to their very own farm. With their family complete, the task of raising this noisy bunch of boys began. Again, Aline’s busy hands were put to the test: mother, beautician, farm wife, never a spare moment, but always pausing on Sundays to attend the Church of Christ at Blooming Grove where she worshiped faithfully until her death. A daughter-in-law, Joyce, was added to the family in 1956. Those busy hands got just a little busier, helping out her son Roland and his new family as grandchildren began arriving, slowly at first, but then in 1969 as two new daughter-in-laws were added to the family, Darlene to David and Dawn to Jimmy, the momentum picked up. Eventually there would be eight grandsons and four granddaughters and “Nanny’s” love grew exponentially. Those hands were never still, cuddling the newborns, cooking the Sunday dinners, baking those sugar pies, pouring endless glasses of tea, sewing, crocheting and quilting special handwork for all, while still running her beauty shop, tending to her flowers and loving her Lord. Those busy, busy hands. But with her husband’s death in 1997, Nanny now found time for a lifelong passion – dominos. The love of the game and her ability to play forty two continued late into her life. The next decades brought new marriages, a new generation of twenty-nine great-grandchildren. Aline’s hands were slowing now, the fingers bent and crooked from a lifetime of work, but they continued to be busy. A new chapter began as 4 great-great grandchildren laid claim to Nanny’s love, and still there was enough to go around. The more she shared, the more she seemed to possess. The real secret ingredient to that love, though, was Nanny’s rare ability to love all of her children equally, no matter how successful or how flawed any of them were. She loved them, warts and all. And so on August 9, 2015 she left us bereft of the love that she had so generously shared. Her busy hands finally stilled, joining her husband, Clovis and her son Roland, her great granddaughter Ashlee and a host of friends and relatives, but first embracing her Savior whose love she modeled on this earth. Mourning her loss are her sons Jimmy and David, and their wives, Dawn and Darlene, her daughter-in-law Joyce, her grandchildren and spouses, Cathy and Danny Fuchs and their children and grandchildren Macey Fuchs and Landon and Ashley Fuchs, Oren, Flynn, and Avery, Kim and Todd Jensen and daughter Hayley, Clay and Mary Elaine Haden and sons Henry and Davis, Micah and Nancy Haden and sons, Seth, Isaac and Joseph, Joshua and Laura Haden and children, Kate, Claire and Nathan, Amelia and Patrick Churchman and children, Haden, Luke, Gabriel, and Mary Hannah, Cameron and Amy Haden and children, Emily and Levi, Jordan Haden, Alex and Amy Haden and children Alexa, Dalton, Dylan and Aubrey, Amber and Dale Gosser and children, Tyler and Katelyn, daughter and son-in-law, Alyssa and Eddie Castillo and son, Lennox, Joel and Kristen Haden and sons, Eli, Ethan and Ezra, Jonathan and Holly Haden and children, Rae Leigh and Wyatt, special niece, Debra Smith and many more nieces, nephews, neighbors and friends. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the Blooming Grove Scholarship Fund, Dresden Cemetery Association or Campbell-Elrod Cemetery Association. A special "Thank you" to Nancy Melton and Rita Cole who made her last days worth living.

Aline Haden

September 21, 1916 - August 9, 2015