Sarah Frances Hardy

Sarah Frances (Holcombe) Hardy of the Birmingham, Alabama area, passed away Thursday morning, April 25, 2025. She was born in Arab, Marshall County, Alabama to Ira Morgan and Carrie Francis (Thompson) Holcombe on March 5, 1939.

Sarah was the youngest of four children and the only girl. Her dad owned a cabinet shop in Arab and moved the family to Birmingham to start a second shop when Sarah was in elementary school. She graduated from West End High School in Birmingham in 1956, and that same year she married Donald Cox. They had two children, Cheryl and Calvin Cox. In 1968, Sarah married Ernest Albert “Andy” Hardy and they had a son, Daryl Morgan Hardy, and inherited a daughter, Deb Stone, and two sons, Richard Hardy and Michael Hardy.

Sarah spent most of her professional life as an executive secretary to United States Army officers in the Defense Logistics Agency at the Defense Contract Management Area Office (DCMAO) in Birmingham. During her tenure there, she was presented three Distinguished Career Service Medals and the Outstanding Achievement Medal by the Army. At DCMAO, she met and worked with her lifetime best friend, the late Betty Hargrove, for over 25 years. Their unique Southern senses of humor kept everyone in the office entertained and endeared them to all of their colleagues, military and civilian.

Sarah did volunteer work at the Red Mountain Museum in Birmingham in the 1990s and was in charge of scorekeeping for the American Modeling and Talent Conventions in Orlando, Florida, and Hilton Head, South Carolina, from 1990 until 2004. She loved traditional Sacred Harp and Shape-Note (or Fasola) Singing and attended many of their musical events throughout Alabama.

To her grandchildren, Sarah was known as Memaw, and enjoyed playing Scrabble and having everyone in the family over to her house for holidays and birthdays. She loved to travel, and made trips to Australia to visit her brother Gene’s family, accompanied by her parents and her brother Edwin and sister-in-law Shirley Holcombe. She made several trips around the United States with her Birmingham crew, “The Golden Girls” — Betty Hargrove, Pat Callahan, and Judy Resha. She also enjoyed organizing reunions for the Holcombe and Hardy families.

Sarah was preceded in death by her husband, Andy Hardy; parents, Ira and Carrie Holcombe; her three brothers, Edwin, Joe, and Gene Holcombe; and step-sons, Richard and Michael Hardy. She is survived by her sister-in-law, Shirley Holcombe of Birmingham; step-daughter, Deborah Stone and husband Terry of Birmingham; son, Calvin Cox of Cleveland, Georgia; daughter, Cheryl Russell and husband Kevin of Birmingham; son, Daryl Hardy and wife Jenny of Birmingham; grandchildren, Dallas Russell of Birmingham, Jason Russell and wife Kacie of Birmingham, Grayson Glidewell of Birmingham, Sara Hardy and fiancé Guy Twa of Birmingham, Julia Hardy of Birmingham, and Nicole Blakeslee and husband Mike of Baytown, Texas; step-grandchildren, Tosha Roper and husband Ron of Murrayville, Georgia, Amanda Croft of Hiram, Georgia, Jason Stone of Mason City, Iowa, and Lawren Stone and partner Sriti Singh of Nashua, New Hampshire; nine great- and step-great-grandchildren; and many, many nieces, nephews, and cousins in Alabama, Georgia, Iowa, New Hampshire, Texas, Michigan, and Australia.

Visitation will be Friday, May 2, 2025 at Ridout's Southern Heritage Funeral Home in Pelham, Alabama from 12:30 p.m. to 1 p.m., followed by A Celebration of Mrs. Hardy's Life at 1 p.m. at the funeral home, 475 Cahaba Valley Road, Pelham, AL 35124. The gravesite committal service will be Friday, May 2, 2025 at 2:15 p.m. at Jefferson Memorial Gardens South, 2711 John Hawkins Parkway, Hoover, AL 35244.

Donations in lieu of flowers may be made to the Alzheimer’s Association.