Nina L. Farmer Luckett was born in Fort Scott, Kan., the daughter of a dryland farmer who moved to New Mexico when Nina was 3 years old. "We were out on the prairie," she said. "It was fun. We was so glad to move out of Kansas and come out to the farm." The farm was better known to Nina as "The Homestead" which was in the New Mexico prairie as the wild west had come to an end. She was the sixth child born in a family of 12. Her father and mother had many mouths to feed, and the family often resorted to eating rabbits and other animals the boys of the family had trapped. And aside from food, there were many other needs to meet. The family collected and burned cow chips to stay warm in the long and bitter winter months. Young Nina Farmer Luckett had to learn anyway she could. "I had a trick," she said. "They (her siblings) all had to go to school and there was no one to take care of me. So they put me by the teacher's desk. When the students came in, I got my education." Nina ofter told stories of Reservation Indians in full dress, coming to the Homestead to trade wares. Later, Nina built an arsenal of knowledge by peering over older student's shoulders as they studied their college textbooks, she said. She never did make it to college herself, her son Vaughn said. She left steady work as a telephone operator to enroll, but all her possessions were stolen from her brother's car, as she was in San Francisco, CA. preparing for college residency. She chose to return to her Telephone Company job, hoping to rebuild her college plans. As a young woman, traveling aboard the Train from Albuquerque New Mexico, Nina met a young man named Howard whom she immediately knew would become her husband. She married Howard Lacy Luckett, son of JAMES HENRY and LENA MAUDE LUCKETT. The couple moved to Clovis, New Mexico in 1925, where Nina and Howard raised four children, established roots in the community as they ran one of only a few small mom & pop grocery stores in the Clovis area during the Great Depression.

CLOVIS, N.M. - Nina Loneta Luckett, 105, died Thursday, May 3, 2007.

Services will be at 10 a.m. Wednesday in Central Baptist Church with the Rev. Dick Ross officiating. Burial will be in Lawn Haven Memorial Gardens by Steed-Todd Funeral Home.

Mrs. Luckett was born Feb. 12, 1902, in Fort Scott, Kan. She married Howard L. Luckett on July 25, 1925, in Albuquerque.

Survivors include a son, Howard Vaughn Luckett of Cloudcroft; two daughters, Betty Ruth Wood of Englewood, Colo. and Mary Jane Noller of Puyallup, Wash.; and numerous grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren.

The family suggests memorials be to Central Baptist Church, 2501 N. Norris, Clovis, NM 88101.

Amarillo Globe-News, May 5, 2007