Lenora "Jeanne" Harper

Lenora “Jeanne” Harper (Hardy, Peltier) passed away peacefully on June 16, 2018, at Sunshine Gardens Health and Rehabilitation Center in Spokane Valley, WA. Born to Juanita (Nita) and Jos. “Alfred” Peltier in Eureka, MT, on Christmas day 1927, she grew up on the ranch initially homesteaded by her grandparents, Joseph and Lottie Peltier, in the Tobacco Valley. The youngest of three Peltier children (including Dick and Helen) they were joined early in life by a new mom (Mable Smith) and three step-siblings (Gerald, Leonard and Hazel); growing up in a busy, hardworking and loving family. Graduating from Lincoln High School in 1947 she, like many young men and women during WWII, migrated to the city -- Spokane in this case -- joining her two sisters and met the love of her life, Earl A. Hardy of Spokane. Married in 1949, they created a happy, loving home with three children (losing a fourth, Nancy Jo, in infancy). Jeanne was the true homemaker and loved running the household, whether paying the bills/managing the budget, or cooking (a natural baker), sewing, crocheting, decorating, gardening and tending a growing family’s joys as well as occasional pains. To help the family income she also worked for a time at JCPenney in Spokane, sewing custom curtains and drapes. She and Dad inculcated in their children the core values of duty, honor, hard work, love of God and respect for others from their earliest days, and were members of St Patrick’s Parish in Hillyard. Unfortunately, Earl passed in 1969 leaving Jeanne a young widow with a family, who nevertheless continued to thrive. Jeanne later met and married Robert (Bob) Harper and, after his retirement, they spent many years adventuring in the US, Canada and Europe, meeting numerous new friends, and spending a few winters in Arizona. Eventually settling back in Eureka, MT, Bob passed away in 1996, leaving Jeanne widowed for a second time. She later moved to Kalispell but with her health starting to decline returned to Spokane in 2009, and in 2011 made one last move into Sunshine Gardens where she was surrounded by a loving, caring staff who provided vital support for the last years of her life.  Jeanne’s greatest joys remained her family:  She was preceded in death by her parents and all of her brothers and sisters but is survived by her three children, Dennis (Diane), Robert, and Linda (Wayde Miland), seven grandchildren, 12 great-grandchildren as well as numerous nieces and nephews. Funeral arrangements are being handled by Hennessey’s in Spokane Valley, with visitation scheduled there on Friday, June 29th, 6pm, followed by a rosary at 7pm. A funeral mass will be held on Saturday, June 30th, at St Joseph Parish, Otis Orchards, 11am, followed by burial at Holy Cross Cemetery at 3pm.