Barbara Elliott

Barbara N. (Harral) Elliott was born to Walton W. and Princie Estelle (Swofford) Harral, on October 9, 1938 in San Angelo, Texas. She passed from this life to join her heavenly father on January19, 2020 at 2:56 P.M., being 81 years of age. She grew up with her three sisters in the family home of Rankin, Texas and on the ranches operated by her father in Pecos, Upton, and Culbertson Counties, in Texas.

Barbara attended Rankin public schools where she excelled at basketball, was a cheerleader, and a very active 4-H Club member. She and her sisters bred and raised Southdown sheep and won many awards and championships with them. These sheep, as well, furnished many winning lambs to others who did well with them.

While a student at Tarleton State College, she met the love of her life, Robert Henry “Hank” Elliott. They were married in the Methodist Church in Rankin on June 21, 1958. They both attended Texas Tech University. Upon her death, they had been married 61 years and 7 months. “Maybe not a record but a pretty good average.” To this union were born five sons who were the “light of her life”. She also mentored and mothered many others through the years. If she fed you at her dinner table and mothered you once, you were hers forever. All were welcome at her house for a home cooked meal, a good visit, or a loving lecture on how to not mess up in life. She was a 4-H club and FFA adult leader for some thirty-five years. Barbara also spent seventeen years as a teachers aid in the Fort Stockton, Texas, school system. She touched many young lives in a positive way and loved every minute of it, even down to the frustration.

At an early age, she and her sisters became “hands” and very good ones. They could gather and work sheep with the best that ever walked in a sheep pen anywhere. She loved sheep and continued to raise some until the last few years of her life. She could work your livestock, help fix a windmill or water trough pipeline, patch and build fence, make a home from near nothing, and made the best yeast and bread rolls in the State of Texas. Barbara enjoyed playing bridge and loved those who played the game with her. The members of her bridge clubs were very special to her.

She was preceded in death in death by her parents, Walton W. and Estelle (Swofford) Harral, and her sister Amarillis Ann (Harral) Culbertson. She is survived by her husband, Robert Henry “Hank” Elliott, and her five sons; Walton Clyde Elliott of Whitsett, Texas, Robert Matthew Elliott and wife, Peggy, of Sweetwater, Texas, Clinton Wade Elliott and wife, Leslie, of Fort Stockton, Texas, Tracy Lane Elliott, and wife, Rhonda, of Midland, Texas, and Wendel Clay Elliott, and wife, Norma, of Alpine, Texas; thirteen grandchildren and fifteen great grandchildren; Sisters, Linda Chapman, of Lubbock, Texas, and Virginia Farrow, of Greenwood, Texas, and numerous nieces and nephews. Also, Wayne Jefferson and wife, Sylvia, and Leroy Jefferson, of Fort Stockton, Tx, lived part time in her home for several years, to whom she considered her own along with their children and grandchildren.

Barbara lived this life to the fullest loving a living God with undoubting faith, loving family, friends, and all people with an unconditional Godly love. She succumbed to an untreatable cancer under the loving and excellent care of Hospice of Fort Stockton and her family. She suffered no harsh pain and enjoyed family and friends in her last hours with faith that there is a “better home awaiting” with Jesus Christ.

The family would like for you to join them in remembrance of Barbara on Thursday, January 23, 2020, at 11AM, at Northside Church, 1600 N. Gillis, Fort Stockton, Texas. Burial will follow in the East Hill Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, the family request that you make a donation to the charity of your choice or to Pecos County Memorial Hospital Hospice.

Remembrances and condolences may be shared with the family at: www.heritagefuneralhomeofthebigbend.com