Versie Lee Gooden was born October 24, 1931, in Little River County, Arkansas.  She was the oldest of five siblings born to Guffie and Ora Gooden.  Her parents, three siblings, husband, and one sone preceded her in death.  She is survived by one sister.

She married the love of her life.  Trudie Lee Hardwick, on July 9, 1952, and to that union of seventy-two years, two children were born.  She and her husband decided to move to Phoenix, Arizona in 1954 to venture out and start a new life.  She was a loving mother, housewife and owned and operated an establishment and business known as "Hardwick's Record and Shine Parlor" for many years in the mid 1960's.

She united with Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church on Easter Sunday in 1954 under the leadership the late HY Stevenson, Wesley Jones Sr. and Alexis Thomas. She loved working in the church.  She was favorite Sunday School teacher, volunteered for several community service activities, worked various Mission Circles, became a Deaconess of the church, and most of all her love, faithfulness, and dedication for the love Jesus Christ, our Savior.

She also had a passion for sewing, a "green" thumb with growing flowers, and working in her yard.  She loved to fry and eat buffalo and catfish!

After her husband retired, they decided to move back home to Ashdown, Arkansas and united with Friendship Baptist Church and later to St. John Baptist Church and later to St. John Baptist Church until her heath failed.

She leaves to cherish her memories, a daughter, Linda Perryman (Phoenix, AZ); son, Roy Hardwick (Andrea) (Phoenix, AZ); sister, Ocie Lee Thompson (Fairfield, CAS); brothers-in-law, Leroy (Addie) Hardwick Sr. (Wallace, AR) and Riley Lee (Grace) Hardwick (Wallace, AR); sister-in-law, Nell Hardwick (DeKalb, TX); grandchildren, one granddaughter, seven grandsons, twenty-six great-grandchildren one great-great-granddaughter, and one great-great-grandson; and Goddaughters, Mae Bell Paxton and Shelia Jackson, someone very special in her life (both of Ashdown, AR).