Howard Harris was born on October 1, 1938, in the Jasper/Dixie
community to William Diggles Harris and Madie Harris. He
came of age in the piney woods of East Texas—in a place where
neighbors knew one another by name and a man's word still meant
something. From his earliest days, Howard was shaped by the values of
family, faith, and honest work—values that would guide him for the rest
of his life and become the inheritance he passed on to every generation
that followed.
Howard learned the meaning of labor at his father's side. He spent his
early working years in the timber industry, logging alongside the man
who taught him what it meant to put in a full day's work. Those days in
East Texas pines established in him a quiet strength that would define
him for decades. As life called for it, he transitioned into maintenance
and laborer work, taking on whatever job would help provide for his
family—no honest task was beneath him if it meant caring for the people
he loved.
In time, Howard found a different kind of calling in the healthcare
industry, where he sat with sick patients in their most fragile hours,
offering them the gift of his quiet, steady presence. It was fitting work
for a man whose strength was always matched by his gentleness—a man
who knew how to show up for people in their hardest moments without
ever needing to say much.
Howard's joys were simple and deeply held. He loved baseball; the steady,
deliberate rhythm of the game seemed to suit something in his nature.
He loved sports of all kinds, but he was a Cleveland man through and
through, faithful to the Browns and the Cavaliers through every season,
the highs and the lows. That quiet, hopeful loyalty was the same loyalty
he showed to every person in his life.
Above all, Howard loved the Lord. He was a faithful member of Rose
Bloom Missionary Baptist Church, where his faith was nourished and
where he worshipped alongside the people he loved. His walk with God
was not flashy or loud; it was the steady walk of a man who knew Who
he had believed.
On April 22, 2026, after eighty-seven years of faithful living, Howard
answered the Lord's call and entered into eternal rest. Howard was
preceded in death by his mother, Madie Harris Diggles; his father,
William Harris Diggles; his siblings, Rosie Lee Bohannon, Johnnie
Mae Allen, William James Harris; and his beloved son, Gary Paul
McFarland. He leaves to cherish his memory his devoted wife, Pretha
Mae Harris; his loving children, Quince Harris (Germaine), Andrea
Armstrong (Anthony), Tasha Harris, and Corey Harris (Yolanda); his
siblings Calvin (Ceolla), Jeanette Sells (Charles), John, Sammy, and

Jimmy (Sharon); and a host of cherished grandchildren and great-
grandchildren, along with a wide circle of nieces, nephews, cousins,

church family, and dear friends. He worked hard, loved deeply, and
trusted God — and his legacy lives on in every life he touched.