Harriet Ruth Hawley

The Forcades had moved to Blackwater Missouri to set up their first practice but returned to the college in Kansas City, Kansas so she could be delivered by the OB professor, Dr. Margaret Jones. She was the 400th baby that Dr. Jones had delivered. The early days of the practice also consisted of responding to highway accidents, which was shared on a rotation with another doctor in town. She went on her first house call with her parents to deliver a baby at the age of 4 months and got a good night's sleep in the middle of the dining room table. She "told" her Aunt Coral Forcade that " I am not really sure what went on, but there was some commotion. When I went to sleep there were 10 kids in the house, and the next morning there was 11." The Forcades made the decision to move down to De Ridder, Louisiana when Harriet was about 2 years old. De Ridder was where the Elston family, Esther's parents and brother and sisters, had eventually settled after leaving Covington, Indiana due to TB which was endemic to the area. While attending the College of Osteopathic Medicine, Esther, had gotten a call about a nearby gospel meeting. She did not drive, so Miller offered to take her to the meeting and stayed to listen. When he expressed an interest in what he had heard, she gave him a small New Testament and told him to start reading the Book of John. He did, quickly followed by the rest of the gospels and then the entire New Testament. He was baptized and took to heart the words of Jesus, " Go and preach". When they arrived in DeRidder. they set up their practice and while he " doctored" he talked to any one who would listen. Her sister, Dorcas, was born in 1933 so they moved to a larger house to accommodate the practice and the family. It is reported that Harriet, at the age of 3 years, sat in her rocking chair on the front porch of the house they were leaving and sang " I Shall Not Be Moved". Her youngest sister, Virginia was born in 1937 so they moved again to a larger house, and then while she was in early elementary grades, they moved to a large house, rumored to be haunted. It accommodated the family, the practice and soon soldiers and their families from the base nearby who were arriving to train for war.- there was even a young man who slept in the bathtub. She started 1st grade at the elementary school. She brought in a goldfish to be the class pet and over the weekend the school burned down, so they moved the classes to the local churches. She went to the Baptist church. Her parents ran the practice during the week and went out into the local area to preach on weekends. She recalled her father holding meetings in the woods where the only illumination was the headlights on the cars and the congregation stacked their shotguns at the door. She and her sisters had 14 cousins that lived out in the country who they enjoyed spending time with very much.

Part of her job as a child was holding the Bible while her father memorized scripture, checking him as he recited. Even in the last months of her life, during the daily Bible reading, passages in Romans and Hebrews would trigger her memory and she could quote several verses spontaneously. She spent most of her elementary years in De Ridder except for a 2 month period in Davis City, Iowa where the practice was closed and family went to a " Bible Reading" with the preacher there. She started Junior High in De Ridder, but spent her eighth grade year in Louisville, Kentucky at Portland Christian School while her father went to a graduate seminary to study Greek and Hebrew. Her parents applied to the State Department to go and do mission work in Shanghai when she was 14 but due to the political instability of the area, they were not granted a visa. After Louisville, the family returned to De Ridder where she went high school until a few months into senior year. Her father had taken decided to close the formal practice and had accepted a preaching job in New Orleans. They then moved again to another part of the city, so Harriet ended up attending 3 different high schools her senior year. She graduated from McDonough, an all girl's school - all the graduates wore long white dresses and carried a dozen red long stem roses.

She went her freshman year to Newcomb, the women's college at Tulane University, who at that point was not admitting women. During her freshmen year, her parents moved to Harper, Kansas, so she spent her sophomore year of college at the University of Wichita. The family did not have the funds to send her to school, so the year between her sophomore and junior years, she took a job teaching in Pleasant Valley, a small Mennonite Community. It was a one room school house and she had 14 students from 1st to 8th grade. She returned to the University of Wichita for her Junior year, staying with family friends when her parents moved to Wichita Falls, Texas. She then moved to Texas and enrolled at Midwestern State University for her senior year. She graduated and started teaching elementary school while returning to Midwestern for her Masters in Elementary Education. She stayed in Texas for school and work while Virginia, her youngest sister, was finishing her bachelor's degree and then they followed their parents to California. Dorcas had married a Texan and stayed in Texas. All 3 Forcade daughters graduated at the same ceremony, 2 with Masters and one with a Bachelors.

She started teaching school in Lynwood and was introduced to Gary Hawley at church by some mutual family friends. They married June 27, 1959. They had two girls, Susan and Ellen. Gary was transferred to Orange County for work, so in 1964 they moved to Fullerton, California. They stayed there about 2.5 years and then moved to Yorba Linda, California in 1967, which was as yet unincorporated. They and some other young families were eager to establish a congregation of the Church of Christ in Yorba Linda. They met for the first in January of 1966 in the Yorba Linda Women’s Club building. Gary was transferred back to Downey for work with the Space Shuttle program at Rockwell. They decided to stay in Yorba Linda. Her parents were finally able to go into Mission work and spent 8 years in Japan and later as houseparent’s for a year at an orphanage in Salisbury, Rhodesia.

She left teaching public school and started working with the children at church, writing lessons for ages cradle roll thru 6th grade that would take them through the Bible every 2 years. She helped start the "Tuesday School" , a preschool program for children of church families and friends of those families. She with some other parents, worked to set up the Galilean clubs, a faith based weekly club for kids in elementary grades 4-6 and a separate program for the Junior High ages. She was a tireless Bible teacher and continued as long as she was able. She touched the lives of countless children and their families.

Her daughters both became nurses. She and Gary were still living in the Yorba Linda house at the time of their deaths- Gary in 1998 and her in 2026.

She is preceded in death by her parents, Drs J Miller and Esther E. Forcade, her sister, Virginia McClain, her husband, Gary, and son in law, Timothy Kjellgren. She is survived by her daughters, Susan Kjellgren and Ellen Hawley, both residing in Yorba Linda, her sister, Dorcas Brock of Austin Texas, and many nieces and nephews.

If anyone would like to make a donation in her honor, her girls would like to suggest, Namikango Mission in Malawi. Their address is PO Box 16528, Lubbock, Texas 79490.