Obituary of Nancy LaVerne Harper

Nancy LaVerne Harper "LaVerne Harper" 72, of Albuquerque, New Mexico, passed peacefully away on January 3, 2023, after a sudden bout of lung cancer. LaVerne loved art, poetry, the study of ikebana, picked up her daddy’s guitar and learned to play in the last five years.

LaVerne was born on April 29, 1951, to Nancy Gales Harper and Leon Jackson Harper, Jr. in Raleigh, North Carolina. LaVerne grew up on a tobacco farm in the middle of North Carolina, growing up with little to no resources or exposure to art and no encouragement as a little girl who yearned to draw. At 18 she became a teacher/art major. She taught at North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston, Salem. She got her MFA at UNC-Greensboro.

In 1986 she quit the security of a teaching job, packed up her Honda and french easel and moved to New Mexico. With the New Mexico light and blue sky, she finally felt she could breathe.

LaVerne was a gifted art teacher loving the South Valley, teaching, painting, farming, gardening, cooking, singing, and playing guitar.

For the past 34 years LaVerne was living happily with her husband Ali Baudoin.

LaVerne is survived by her loving husband Ali Baudoin and his children Bay and Bo Baudoin and granddaughter Annika Johnson-Baudoin. Her brother and family, Leon, Gail, and Abbie Harper. Her faithful dog Ruthie.