Max Braden Hartman Feb. 6, 2021, Max Braden Hartman, 63, loving husband and father of seven children, passed away at home, after battling several severe illnesses. A Funeral Mass was held on Feb. 13, at Our Lady of the Sun Catholic Church, in El Mirage. Interment will be at Sunland Memorial Park Cemetery in Sun City. Max was born Oct. 19, 1957, in Crawford Nebraska, to Jack and Mary (Peck) Hartman. He grew up a country boy, ranching and wheat farming. He attended elementary school in Whitney, Nebraska and High School in Idaho Springs, Colo. On Dec. 10, 1983, Max married Karen Lukkes. They worked the family farm until 1994, lived briefly in South Dakota, then moved to rural Arizona. Max worked at Bashas Grocery as a meat cutter for 15 years, and Walmart for four years. Max and Karen raised three sons, Philip, Jordan and Brendan, and four daughters, Holly, Nicole, Theresa and Elisha. Max, an avid outdoorsman, loved camping, fishing, hiking, archery, hunting, boating and skeet shooting, was a creative woodworker and a skilled meat cutter. Being a hard worker, he enjoyed an occasional vacation during the fall of the year. He enjoyed escaping to the White Mountains of Arizona, sitting around a campfire with his family, grilling steaks, chatting, praying, stargazing, and enjoying the fresh air and quiet. He had a quick wit, tempering his orneriness with a good joke. Max was preceded in death by his parents. He is survived by wife, Karen; his seven children; eight (soon to be 10) grandchildren; sisters, Denise and Launa; and several cousins, nieces and nephews. Owens Livingston Mortuary of Snowflake handled the arrangements.
