Tommie Lee Hardy

Funeral services for Mr. Tommie Lee Hardy will begin at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, October 1, 2021 at Robert Barham Family Funeral Home, with Brother Dennis Dunn and Brother Ralph Henson officiating. Graveside services with full military honors will begin at 12:00 p.m. at the Mississippi Veteran’s Memorial Cemetery. Robert Barham Family Funeral Home is honored to be entrusted with the arrangements.

Mr. Hardy, age 70, of Meridian passed away on Friday, September 24, 2021 at The University of Mississippi Medical Center surrounded by his family.

Tommie and his childhood sweetheart Wanda started going steady November 8, 1968 at the Southeast football game and they were married on December 24, 1970. They celebrated their 50 ^th anniversary in December of 2020 at a reception together with family and friends.  Tommie and Wanda were blessed with 50 years and 9 months together. Over their 50 years of marriage, Tommie and Wanda enjoyed travelling to their second home, the Great Smoky Mountains. Tommie will be remembered as a loving husband, father, and grandfather.

After graduation Tommie joined the service in 1969 and served his country faithfully for 28 ½ years when he retired from the Mississippi Air National Guard.  In 1974 he began his career in the milk industry with Brookshire Milk Company later know as Dairy Fresh and served Meridian and the surrounding area including west Alabama making lifelong friends along the way for 40 years. Tommie always took care of his Meridian firefighters visiting with them and his son Eric at work.   To this day everyone he would meet on his daily routine would stop him to say, “I know you, you are the Milk Man”.  After retiring from Dairy Fresh he worked for Long Wholesale and was currently employed with Bumper to Bumper Auto Parts.

Tommie was a charter member and deacon at Mt. View Baptist Church with over 40 years of service to his Lord. He also served as Sunday School director and on the Building and Grounds committee where he took great pride in maintaining the church’s lawn.

Mr. Hardy is survived by his wife of fifty years, Wanda Boyette Hardy; children, Eric “Termite” Hardy and his wife, Jenae affectionately known as “NoNo,” Christopher “BooBoo” Hardy, and Amy Hardy Nowell affectionately known as “Amy Lou” and her husband, Shawn; grandchildren, Justin Hardy, Victoria “Tootie-fruity” Hardy, Hagen “Pootenanny” Hardy, Isabella “Darlin” Nowell and Rowan Lee “Pawpaw’s little buddy” Nowell; siblings, Jimmy Wayne “J.W.” Hardy and his wife, Ruth, Nallie Lewis Hardy, Jr. and his wife, Susie, Robert Earl Hardy and his wife, Sheryl; sister-in-law, Robin Boyette Coker; and a host of cousins, nieces and nephews, and friends.

Mr. Hardy was preceded in death by his parents, Nallie Lewis Hardy, Sr. and Mary Watson Hardy; two brothers, James Lewis Hardy, Sr. and Arnold O’Neil Hardy; father and mother-in-law, Lester and Helen “Gram” Boyette; his grandmother-in-law, Bertie Boyette; and sister-in law, Jeannie Nester Hardy, special cousin Ricky Smith; grandbaby Nowell, and grandbaby Hardy.

Pallbearers will be James Hardy, Jr., Shane Smith, Bill Stewart, Jerry Miller, Austin Randall, Donald Thomas, Jeff Hardy, Andy Tice and Barry Gough. Honorary pallbearers will be his fellow deacons at Mt. View Baptist Church and the City of Meridian Fire Fighters.

The family would like to extend a very special thank you to Dr. Dani Choufani (attending), Dr. Alexander Meyer, nurse Kaitlin Kennedy, nurse Cody Collier, Katie Gardner and the staff of UMMC.

Online condolences may be expressed at www.robertbarhamffh.com .

The family will receive friends on Thursday, September 30, 2021 from 5:00 until 7:00 p.m. at Robert Barham Family Funeral Home.