“She was my Most Unforgettable Character" on the Life of Jo Eda Harcrow

History of Hughson, California: The People, the Places, the Traditions of a Small Town

The November 2022 Hughson Historical Society Meeting featured a presentation by Barbara and George Harcrow on the life of Jo Eda “Nancy” Harcrow, who died on June 27, 2022, just two months before she would have turned 102 on September 5, 2022.

Presenting the life of their mother, Barbara and George connected the details of Jo Eda Harcrow’s life to historical information, adding richness and vividness to their presentation. The eulogy, written by Ada Maria Harcrow and read by George Harcrow, conveyed the deep love and affection felt by many family members. “She had been Nana to more than we can count,” George read.

Harcrow was born in 1920, the year that women were given the right to vote, as one of five children in Texas. Her father was a working cowboy. To pay the doctor following their baby’s birth, her father bartered to break in a new horse for the doctor.

At age 14, Harcrow met Shands Harcrow, a friend of one of her older brothers. He said to her, “Don't pay any attention to the other guys because when you grow up, I'm going to marry you.” And that he did. In 1938, the two eloped when she was 18 years old. They were married for 53 years before he died.

The couple, with their first child, relocated to California, driven out of Texas by the severity of the Dust Bowl. Harcrow would live in Hughson for 70 years before her passing.

Together they had five children, Ada Maria, Don, Joe, George and Shands.

In 1942, Hacrow joined the “millions of Rosie the Riveters,” supporting the war effort and working in a shipyard as a chipper burner. George recalled seeing scars along her shoulders and chest where shards of hot metal fell from the area of a ship she was cutting.

George and Barbara recalled Harcrow’s rocking chair where she sat and hummed “Jesus Loves You” or “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” When you heard the “de dum” of the chair, they explained, “you knew you were loved.”

Harcrow was a founding member of the Southern Baptist Church in Ceres. “She did everything but drive the bus — and I did that!” George said.

“Nana’s family were her friends and her friends were her family,” Barbara said shared how she could hear her mother on the monitors in the weeks before she died praying for the family by name and friends she encountered.

Harcrow was a pioneering spirit who never stopped taking the initiative to learn new things. To learn piano, she studied through a mail-order program. She took up the organ and volunteered as a church organist for 32 years. She taught Sunday school to three generations.

Barbara highlighted “Twenty interesting things about Jo Eda “Nancy” Harcrow” and displayed the different facets of her life as wife, mother, musician, cook, maker of greeting cards, cake decorator, Sunday school teacher, seamstress, quilter, crocheter, and traveler.

Barbara played three short recordings that illustrated her mischievous and adventurous childhood and playful humor in her final days. These recordings, photos, memorabilia and colorful, dynamic stories introduced Jo Eda “Nancy” Harcrow in a personal and striking way to those present who may never have met her. Barbara concluded, “She was my most unforgettable character.”

Originally published in the Hughson Chronicle & Denair Dispatch on November 15, 2022. The Hughson Chronicle & Denair Dispatch is part of MidValley Publications - committed to the power of the positive press. Reprinted with Permission.

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