Sarah B. Hitt entered the presence of her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ on December 22, 2024, at the age of 72. She was born on January 23, 1952, in Leachville, Arkansas, to Dallas Clifton and Edith Juanita Smith, both of whom predeceased her. She
graduated from Leachville High School in 1969 and became a young bride who soon became a young mother. While her two sons were very young, she decided to pursue a career in nursing. First, she obtained an associate degree and licensure as a registered nurse. After her sons started school and sports, she decided teaching would better suit
their schedules, so she earned a bachelor’s in education and taught science in the Senath-Hornersville School District. To this day many of her former students claim her as their favorite teacher.
Though a gifted teacher, she never left nursing; in fact, she pulled double duty for years, working through more college classes while teaching high school through the week and nursing two twelve-hour shifts at Arkansas Methodist Medical Center in Paragould every other weekend. That meant 12 days on, two days off.
In her spare time, she worked on the farm, planted gardens, hauled produce, raised and trained Quarter horses, shucked corn, made jam, pickled cucumbers, canned beans, sewed clothes, washed and ironed, cooked dinners, baked cakes and pies and cookies, cared for her aging mother, and cheered on her boys at everything they put a hand to. Strength, selflessness, resilience, determination, and fortitude were the hallmarks of her character and the keys to achieving still more education: a master’s in science, followed by a bachelor’s in nursing, and finally a master’s in nursing. After many years of service at AMMC, she became the first APRN in Northeast Arkansas to own and operate her own clinic, Hitt Family Healthcare in Paragould, where she practiced until she could no
longer. There she put the care in “healthcare” for her many adoring patients, whom she sincerely loved. Her love for others, whether demonstrated in her medical clinic or on the mission field in Guatemala with her church, was born of her love for Jesus. She was a faithful member of Grace Baptist Church in Paragould for many years.
After her love for the Lord, her primary devotion was to her family, including sons Curtis (Shauna) Hitt and Ron (Allison) Hitt, and her grandchildren, Cruz, Dallas, Harleigh, and Gabriella Grace, all of Paragould. She was a devoted and stalwart mother and an eminently proud and adoring MiMi, who attended every possible event in support of her grandchildren and, for a long time, faithfully prepared breakfasts of chocolate gravy and
biscuits (pancakes for Harleigh) every Sunday before church and, often for Sunday dinner, pork loin or taco casserole or anything else under the sun her sons might request.
In addition to her sons and their families, she is survived by her elder sister, Jo Ann
Clark, of Mustang, Oklahoma.