Howard E. Harden

Graveside services for Howard Enneis Harden, age 96, of Boston will be held at 11:00 am, Friday, July 26 at Boston City Cemetery. Born August 31, 1922 in Toombs County, Georgia, he died at home on July 23, 2019. The youngest son of Carrie Lou Newton and Walter Lang Harden, he moved to Boston as a young child and graduated from Boston High School in 1939. He met Betty Kelley while working as a soda jerk at Adams Drug Store. They were married on February 9, 1947. He farmed and worked for the U.S. Postal Service for thirty years. He retired in 1986 after serving three years as postmaster of Boston. He was a member of Boston Methodist Church where he served as treasurer for many years. He was awarded the Purple Heart for injuries sustained in a lemon grove in Sicily during World War II. He later served in North Africa and Italy in the Military Police before returning to the States. He returned home from the war on Thanksgiving Day, 1945. He and his son visited the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C. as part of the second Honor Flight from Tallahassee. He is survived by two daughters, Carol Sheftall (Will) of Thomasville, and Suzanne Knapp (Jim) of McDonough, GA; a son, Edward Ennis Harden (Judy) of Boston; six grandchildren, Mary Beth Vermeer (Luc) of High Point, NC; William L. Sheftall IV (Allison) of Huntersville, NC; Charles Kelley Harden of McDonough, John James Knapp of McDonough; Whitney Harden Shade (Brent) of Macon, GA; and Bryant Edward Harden (Katie) of Albany, GA; and 4 great-grandchildren, Cole and Grace Vermeer of High Point, and Braxton and Blake Shade of Macon. Mr. Harden is preceded in death by his wife of 70 years, Betty Kelley Harden; a son, Howard Kelley Harden, brothers Edwin Harden of Quitman and Clyde Harden of Boston, and a sister, Margaret Fox of Huntsville, AL. Memorials may be made to the Boston Cemetery Association or a charity of choice.