Helen Joanne Hardee

Helen Joanne Weigand Hardee, a painter, poet, gardener, member of the high IQ society MENSA International, and loving mother, grandmother and great grandmother, passed away on October 14, 2020, in Garland, Texas. She was 91 and is now reunited in Heaven with her husband of 57 years after a life filled with music, art, dance, education, travel and a strong passion for family. Joanne was born on March 20, 1929, in San Antonio to Joseph and Helen Duffin Weigand. Her father died in 1936, and her mother was remarried to Malcolm Hennigan, Joanne's longtime stepfather.
As a child, Joanne attended St. Henry's, Blessed Sacrament and Ursuline schools in San Antonio before moving to Laredo. There she attended St. Peter's Elementary and eventually Martin High School. The family returned to San Antonio, where Joanne briefly attended Breckenridge High School before graduating from St. Mary's High School in 1946.
She started her college education at Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, where she was an honors student and was invited to pledge as a member of the Alpha Sigma Chapter of Kappa Pi National Honorary Art Fraternity. She also studied fine arts at the University of Texas at San Antonio. She met her husband, Weldon, shortly after high school graduation while working for Southwestern Bell in San Antonio. They were married on January 15, 1949. Together they raised four children, Karen Joanne (1950), Weldon Paul (1953), Gary Malcolm (1954) and Mary Helen (1957).
Once all of her children began school, Joanne returned to working outside of the home as a kindergarten and elementary school teacher at St. Margaret Mary's, Holy Name and St. Gerard's. She delivered newspapers to supplement the family's income and later worked in the St. Mary's University library, at Bexar County Hospital and at the University of Texas Health Science Center in the pediatrics and pediatric dentistry departments. She retired in 1985. She served in volunteer roles at several churches, at SAM Ministries for the homeless in San Antonio and the San Antonio State Hospital.
Joanne loved to dance, sing and create art in varied media, including metal sculpture, ceramics and oil, acrylic and watercolor paintings. She had several poems published in an annual anthology. She passed all of the required tests to earn membership in MENSA. She and Weldon enjoyed traveling across the United States and internationally to Mexico, Canada, the Bahamas, Spain, Czechoslovakia, Austria and Hungary.
She is survived by her four children: Karen Terry; Weldon Paul Hardee and his wife, Jackie; Gary Hardee; and Mary Helen Richardson and her husband, Don; as well as nine grandchildren and 11 great grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her parents, stepfather and husband; her brother, Donald Weigand; son-in-law Fred Terry; and daughter-in-law Camilla Haugarth Hardee.

In lieu of flowers donations may be made to www.ccdallas.org/donation