Posted on 07/25/2005 10:23:52 AM PDT by Racehorse
Grace "Mimi" Truman Dodson Hearne had hands as versatile as her life. Her fingers recited the melodies of Frédéric Chopin with the same keen accuracy they used to pull the trigger of a 20-gauge shotgun.
Whether cattle ranching in the Hill Country or studying classical piano in New York City, Hearne lived 102 years as a survivalist who knew how to get things done her way.
"She was hardened by her circumstances," said Hearne's grandson, Douglass Hearne Jr. "It was a function of living by herself in the rough country. She was tough as nails."
[. . .]
The first of three daughters born to a San Antonio attorney, Hearne's penchant for shattering gender stereotypes began early. Her father taught her to fish and shoot as a child. As she grew, she won a reputation as a talented markswoman, able to hit 99 out of 100 skeet, Douglass Hearne said.
Her niece, Lorena "Doddie" Dodson Furrh, called her "my grandfather's son."
"She could hit a buzzard on the wing with one shot," Furrh said.
Out of high school, she turned down an offer to join a Wild West road show, enrolling instead at the University of Arizona in Tucson. She later attended the New York School of Music, where she met and married off-Broadway actor Noble Hearne. The couple had two sons, but later divorced.
Hearne relished her independence, taking over her father's Blanco ranch as she raised her sons as a single mother.
(Excerpt) Read more at mysanantonio.com ...
Also from the obituary:
Into her 90s, Hearne processed deer on her porch and threw feed to the cattle from the back of her pickup. She continued to run the ranch into her late 90s.
"She'd drive around the ranch looking at her cows with a glass of crème de menthe in her hand," Furrh said.
At just 4 feet 10 inches tall, Hearne's fiery attitude won her the respect, and fear, of her neighbors. She chased away trespassers with the same aggressiveness she used to deal with threatening pests.
And her sharpshooting eye never failed. At 97, Hearne protected her great-grandson from a 6-foot-long rattlesnake with a few shots from the hip.
. . . it was her contribution to the community's early development that made her revered. She was a founding member of the Blanco Women's Club and contributed to the opening of Blanco's first library.
Live life everyday, as if you are soon dying!
Makes me sad for our country, though. It's people with spirit and gumption, and I dare say common sense, like hers that made America great. No victim mentality in her to depend on the gubberment - yet that's all you do see in one form or another in the majority of our citizens today.
God bless and rest her soul.
Amen to that. Real women are hard to find.
That sentence really stuck out to me....I've been called my fathers "oldest son" for most of my life. When other little girls were playing with dolls I was following my dad around learning how to fix things and when I got old enough I learned to fish, hunt and shoot! My younger brother always resented me for it...LOL
LOL
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