Iris R. Hewett of Moriarty, passed away Christmas morning in Belen. Iris was born on July 28, 1935, in American Fork, UT to August and Ella May (Thayne) Leplat. Her mother, Ella May, was born/raised on a ranch outside Casa Grande, Mexico. Ella May was taught at a young age to handle a pistol by older brothers and the bandits that often camped on the ranch. These skills proved handy for Ella May on March 9, 1916, during Pancho Villa’s raid on Columbus, NM where she was residing with her first husband, a U.S Cavalry Officer. Ella May’s second and final husband, August, was a full-blood Frenchman born in Madrid, NM to immigrant coal-miner parents. A few years after August’s birth, the Leplat family relocated to Corrales and started growing grapes and making wine. At the age of nine, August began guiding a team of mules, a wagon, and a couple of barrels of fine wine onward from Corrales to Madrid so the coal miners could quench the thirst when the company steam whistle blew on payday. August later owned a small trucking company in Utah where he met Ella May before their marriage and return to farm in Corrales.
Raised on the farm, blue-eyed Iris had a very close bond with her father, family lands, animals, and learning. In the pre-school years, Iris would accompany August on his daily field work, usually locating under a nearby shade-tree to study schoolbooks borrowed from her beloved sister, Francis, and brother, August Emile. These older siblings often expressed concerns to the parents that Iris, as the youngest child, was ornery and annoying. But they loved her, nonetheless. In early grade school, Iris was often asked to use her linguistic skills to facilitate communication between the predominately English-speaking teachers and the Spanish-speaking students. Iris made many life-long friends during these early school day interactions.
After graduating from Bernalillo High School, Iris attended Beautician School and began working as a beautician while planning to shortly attend college on a scholarship awarded by The Ford Foundation. However, on a blind date, Iris met and fell in love with a “long-legged cowboy” named Billy D. Hewett. Bill soon exchanged his cowboying job for employment on a construction crew with Mountain States Telephone Company. Iris did her part and built a family home in a small trailer house that was pulled behind the couple’s car, or if luck was with them a telephone company truck, as they moved from town-to-town throughout New Mexico. The birth of three sons followed: Marcus, Moriarty, NM; Lelan (Gail), Mountainair, NM and Arlan (Kimberly), Hamilton, TX. As Bill’s telephone company career matured, the family settled in Bosque Farms, NM. Iris was also employed as a maternity nurse at Presbyterian Hospital in Albuquerque. After retirement, Bill and Iris relocated to Eastern New Mexico where they partnered on cattle, ranching, and arrowhead hunting expeditions with relatives and dear friends Jake and Wanda Autry. Bill and Iris eventually moved to Moriarty, partly to help with the family ranch near Mountainair. Bill passed away in 2005 a few months after the couple celebrated 50 years of union. Iris gave son Arlan a mortal body on Christmas Day in 1960. On Christmas Day in 2024, the LORD gave Iris an eternal life. Iris was a life-long practicing member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Iris was a feisty lady that tried to leave behind a legacy of pride and family with her sons, daughters-in-law, grand-children, great grand-children, nieces, nephews, and friends. Iris was proceeded in death by her parents, siblings, husband, and one grandson. The family gives special thank you to care giver Debbie Henson and family in Belen, the caring team of Roadrunner Hospice, nephew Danny Hatch from Utah, and niece Evelyn Averhoff from Lubbock, TX for their help during this time.
Services for Iris were held on Saturday, January 4 at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Estancia. Iris waslaid to rest at the Hewett Family Cemetery in Mountainair.
Arrangements are being handled by the caring professionals at the Noblin Funeral Service Belen Chapel, where an online guest register is available at www.noblin.com