Funeral services for Randle Hill, 84, of Portales, will be held at 10:00 AM, Mon., Dec. 27, 2021 at the First Baptist Church in Portales with Rev. Philip Smith and Dr. David McFadden officiating.  Burial will follow in the Portales Cemetery with Jordan Hill, Brock Hill, Tim Russell, Ronny Foster, Justin Light and Harold Hatch serving as pallbearers.  Randy Fowler, John Chavez, and Herb Burton along with members of the Rhythm Rounders and the Starlight Swingers will be honorary pallbearers.

Emory Randle Hill, known to virtually everyone as “Randle,” was born Feb. 9, 1937 in Kerens, TX to the home of Lenora (Vest) and Alvis Overton Hill and died on Sunday, Dec. 19, 2021 in Muleshoe, TX. The family moved to Portales when Randle was a young boy. He graduated from Portales High School in 1955. Randle pitched the very first baseball game ever played by Portales High School. Shortly after graduation, Randle began working for the telephone company as a lineman. He was first sent to Las Vegas, NM. During the time he was there, he met the love of his life, Joyce English. They were married in Las Vegas, NM on Nov. 27, 1959.

In the early 1960’s he was transferred to Raton, where he was part of the crew that ran the telephone line through the Raton Pass.  He often told of the experiences there working in the bitter cold to accomplish that feat.  From there he transferred to Deming for a short time, and then on to Albuquerque, before finally settling in Portales in 1967.  Randle retired in 1988, after 33 years with the phone company.  Following his retirement, he established Roadrunner Telephone.  For more than 20 years, Randle installed and repaired phone systems in businesses all around the eastern half of New Mexico.  He had been retired since 2010.

All throughout his lifetime, Randle enjoyed sports, especially fastpitch softball.  He was inducted into the Amateur Softball Association (ASA) Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City.  In addition to playing softball himself, he was a constant attendee at all of his sons and grandchildren’s sporting events.  No distance was too far for him to go in order to be there and support them.

Randle had traveled extensively across the United States, and Canada.  He even made the trip to Italy and Greece when his granddaughter was stationed there.  He and his wife were members of the Rhythm Rounders Round Dance club, as well as the Starlight Swingers Square Dance club.  Randle was a Cuer for Round Dancing, and even had a dance floor at his home where he would invite couples to come to dance and he would practice.  Randle and Joyce enjoyed dancing throughout the area for more than 15 years.

Randle is survived by two sons and daughters-in-law, Greg and Debbie Hill of Muleshoe, TX and Brad and Emily Hill of Kingwood, TX; four grandchildren, Morgan Hill, Jordan Hill, Avery Hill and Brock Hill; and two sisters, Peggy Predieri of Shelby, OH and Barbara Deckard of Blue Ridge, TX.  He was preceded in death by his parents, four brothers, Alvis, Charles Bobby, William and Gerald Hill, two sisters, Glenda Simacek and Connie Deckard, by his oldest son, Doug who died Dec. 29, 1974 and his beloved wife, Joyce, who died May 6, 2003 after more than 43 years of marriage.

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