C. Faye Lary

Cloye Faye Lary, age 90 years of Niles, Michigan; mother, grandmother, sister, aunt, foster parent, cook, and musician, died peacefully at 7:53 p.m. on Tuesday, August 20, 2024 at Cass County Medical Care Facility near Cassopolis, Michigan, following an extended illness.

She was born on March 28, 1934 in Harrisburg, Arkansas to Sidney and Jewell (Craft) Hudgen, and was graduated from high school in Harrisburg. She continued her education, earning her Registered Nurse certification from a nursing school in Harrisburg. She came with her family to Niles in 1962, and was employed as a nurse at the former Buchanan (Michigan) Hospital, and then employed at the Cass County Medical Care Facility – before the new building - where she continued employment for many years.

Faye was a founding member of Huntly Memorial Baptist Church, near Barron Lake. She became a foster parent by inheriting the seven foster children of a close neighbor when that neighbor died of tragic circumstances. Faye never looked-back, and never declined new children, eventually totaling over three hundred children. She and her husband also served as foster grandparents to students of the Blossomland Learning Center in Berrien Springs, Michigan.

Fortunately, she loved to cook, an important attribute when one’s home is full of children. She had learned well, while in Arkansas, southern style cooking, and was well-known for her biscuits and gravy, and for fresh homemade cornbread in a cast-iron skillet. Music was an important part of her life, being able to watch someone play an instrument, and then pick-up that same instrument and play quite well. That “playing by ear” allowed her to be hired by touring musicians who needed a local stage band to support them. She played many area county fairs, and at one concert rehearsal, the touring star showed her how to lay the guitar on her lap and use a “steel” to move up and down the strings to glide from note to note.

Above all, she was a ‘homebody’ enjoying all of those foster kids, and her own family and husband.

On Leap Year Day, 1968 – February 29 – in Cassopolis she married Robert W. Lary with whom she celebrated the thirty-nineth anniversary of their wedding prior to his death on August 28, 2007. She was also sadly preceded in death by daughters Kamasha Lary and Diane Lary; by a daughter-in-law, Nilda (Mrs. William) Riley; by her parents, Sidney and Jewell Hudgen; and by her siblings, Ruben Hudgen, Sidney Hudgen, Homer Hudgen, and Floyd Hudgen, all from Arkansas.

Surviving family includes her children, William Riley of Niles, Darlen (& Robert) Stover of Texas, Rick (& Vi) Lary of Niles, Carol Lingle of Alaska, Bill (& Dena) Lary of Connecticut, and Kay (& Richard) Jacquez of Indiana; grandchildren, Annabell (& Steve) Roeder, Nilda Faye (& Michael) Neihengen, Sarah (& Randall) Burks, Erin (& Jeremy) Williams, Jenniefer (& Johnny) Shadix, Krystal Lary (& Mike VanKirk), Tasha Foust, Saranda (& Nick) Musser, Sabrena Lary, Veronica Oleszewski, Teila (& Adam) Earle, Brooke (& Connor) Earle, Jenna Smith (& fiancé, Nick), Jerusha Lingle, Dawn Lingle, Shaun (& Lindsay) Jacquez, Richard Jacquez, and Amanda Shackelford; great-grandchildren Jacob, Zack, Michael, Mackenzie, Caitlin, Gianna, Genesis, Adeline, Harper, Keegen, Espen, Walker, Anderson, Aurora, Aaliyah, Adin, Monica, Dakota, Dregan, Nikita, and Jade; and Faye’s brother, Tony E. (& Della) Hudgen of Niles, and many nieces and nephews.

The funeral service for C. Faye Lary will be at 11:00 a.m. on Friday, August 30, 2024 at the Halbritter-Wickens Funeral Home, 615 East Main Street in Niles, with the Rev. Ronald Smith, retired of Huntly Baptist Church officiating, assisted by Faye’s great-grandson, Jacob Roeder, Youth Pastor at The Crossing Church, Batavia, Ohio. Committal will follow at Coulter’s Chapel Cemetery in Niles. Those unable to attend may witness the service via the livestreamed broadcast on the Halbritter-Wickens Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/halbritterwickensfuneralservices/.

The family will receive relatives and friends from 6:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. on Thursday, at the funeral home. Contributions in memory of Faye may be made to Huntly Memorial Baptist Church, 1139 Huntly Road, Niles, Michigan, 49120, https://www.huntlybaptistniles.com/; or to the Blossom Learning Center, 711 Saint Joseph Avenue, Berrien Springs, Michigan, 49103, https://blossomland.berrienresa.org/. Online memories and condolences may be left at:

www.halbritterwickens.com

Faye’s ninety years clearly exceeds the Biblical promise of 70, or if by strength, 80, and she used all of those years well, serving as a nurse, cooking for folks, and entertaining with music. But of course it was loving her family - starting as an only daughter with five brothers, and then her own children along with the hundreds of foster grandchildren – that was her testimony to fulfilling the Biblical command to love God and love people.