Margaret Lavine Naiman was born to Margaretha “Maggie” Stierlen and John Leo Naiman on November 2, 1915, in their home located in the southwest part of Endicott, NE.  She was baptized on 2-27-1916 as Margaret Alvine Naiman at the Grace Lutheran Church in Hebron, NE. 

Margaret grew up in Endicott, NE and was the youngest of 5 children.  Her sisters were Alma (Bill Iwohn) and Clara (Kyle Swett) and her brothers were Lawrence (Ila) and Melvin, “Shorty” (Lyla).

She had various jobs and chores when she was a young girl. When Margaret was four years old, she and her sisters made some money by helping Mr. Pusey, a blind man who lived with them. When he needed to be taken outside to the bathroom, they would hold his hand and walk him to the outhouse. He would give them a penny each time. If they would read the newspaper to him, he would pay them a nickel.  When Mr. Pusey died, he left the house at the corner of Schuyler and Reynolds in Endicott to Margaret’s parents for taking care of him. Margaret grew up in that house.

She often did the dishes after her mom did the cooking. She delivered newspapers for the Lincoln Journal. Margaret would walk to the train station to pick up 29 papers at 6:00 p.m. She would then deliver the papers to her customers on every street in Endicott. Sometimes it would be dark when she finished. She would deliver the papers in good or bad weather and even when she “had a swollen leg that hurt.”

Margaret could spend her hard-earned money however she wanted. To reward herself, she would get a bottle of pop or a candy bar, usually a Baby Ruth or a Hershey. Since she walked so much, her mom asked her to buy her own shoes with the money she earned.

Margaret remembers how happy she was while she was at school in Endicott. She loved art and enjoyed the times when she could paint. When Margaret was still pretty young, she would walk home from school for her lunch. Her parents would leave the coals in the wood-burning stove banked for a starter fire. She would scrunch up a newspaper and put it against the banked coals to start the fire again and then add a small stick of wood to the fire. The fire would be just hot enough to heat the metal plate burner. She would fry an egg in a skillet for her lunch. She also would open and enjoy eating a jar of home-canned peaches or tomatoes. (She still craved canned peaches and tomatoes into her 90’s.)

Margaret and her sister Clara loved babies and had fun taking care of the Bakewell twins. Margaret would take care of Ritchie and Clara would take care of Bobby. They would push the twins up and down the sidewalk in a carriage. They pretended that the boys were their babies. It was fun until one of the babies had a dirty diaper. Then these “little mothers” would knock on Mrs. Bakewell’s door to get her to handle the situation. They just waited outside for the twins to come back all clean and ready for another ride.

After Margaret graduated from high school in 1934, Alma, Margaret’s sister, asked Margaret if she would like to go to beauty school in Beatrice. Alma would pay the $40.00 for her to go to school.  Margaret’s Mother owned the Blue Front Café on the Main street of Endicott.  Margaret’s Mother asked her if she would stay and help run the Café instead.  She helped her Mother run the café for several years.

Among the young men friends in Margaret’s life were Kyle and Lyle Swett and Joe Sullivan. Margaret was supposedly going steady with Joe. One-night Lyle asked Edward Hardy, a young farmer from Fairbury, if he would like to get a date and go to the fair with Lyle and his gal.  Edward’s girlfriend had run off and married someone else, so Lyle suggested that Edward ask Margaret to go with him. He did and since Joe was out of town, Margaret agreed to go with him. From that time on they were a couple. Joe ended up becoming a friend of Edward’s and would play croquet with him on the court in Endicott that Margaret’s Dad helped build.

One day, when Edward’s parents were in Iowa visiting their daughter Rose and husband, Sam Turner, Edward asked Margaret if she wanted to get married. She agreed and on that very day, May 23, 1936, Margaret and Wilson Edward Hardy II, (Edward) ran off to Washington, KS, to the Justice of the Peace. When they came out of the building after being married, they were met on the sidewalk by Ray Beetle and Irvin Perkins. Those two men hurried back home to tell everyone that they saw that Margaret and Edward were married. Margaret asked Edward what his Mother was going to say when she found out that they were married. Edward said she would probably say, “Oh you crazy fool,” and she did!

In 1945 they purchased the farm that was located across the road from the Rock Creek Station.  Margaret was now living about 6 miles from where she was born, and she never lived farther away than Fairbury. They owned horses, raised pigs, cattle, chickens and mostly white cats. Their three children grew up on this farm. Wilson Edward Hardy III (Ted), Virginia Carol (Ginnie) and Joan Marlene (Joanie).

Much of Margaret’s life was spent taking care of Joanie who was born without enough blood that caused a lack of oxygen for her brain. For 40 years Margaret was a wonderful home caregiver for Joanie. Joanie required total care as if she were a newborn baby. Joanie was blind and could not even turn over without her Mother’s assistance.  Margaret was a very loving caregiver for Joanie until Joanie died of pneumonia.

After Edward became ill in 1990, he bought a house in Fairbury because Margaret never learned to drive.  She moved to that house in 1991 to help take care of Edward in the hospital or nursing home until Edward passed on from cancer later that year. For 16 years Margaret lived on Northridge Drive and enjoyed her flowers, cats, playing cards and taking care of her great-grandchildren.  In 2007 she fell and broke her hip. She moved into Cedarwood Assisted Living and enjoyed life there for 7 years until she fell and broke her shoulder. She moved into Gardenside in 2014, where she enjoyed her life, her friends there and the great care from the staff at Gardenside.

Margaret was preceded in death by her parents, (John and Margaretha “Maggie” Naiman), husband, (W. Edward Hardy II), son, (Wilson Edward “Ted” Hardy III), daughter, (Joan Marlene Hardy), daughter-in-law, (Rita Hardy Owens) and her sisters, brothers and in-laws.

Survivors include her daughter, Virginia “Ginnie” (Mohling) Hutcheson (Jerry), grandchildren, Anita Cobb, Ainslie Matthews, “Annette”, Carolyn (Jeff) Bahr, Wilson Edward Hardy IV (Kristy), Jason Hardy (Nichole), Jacki Guerra, Stacy Rosenberger (Jeff) and Theresa Ritchie; 22 great grandchildren and 8 great great grandchildren and nieces and nephews.