Bryant, Patricia Jean (Hardy)

Patricia Jean (Hardy) Bryant was born in Revere, Missouri, on 15 February 1929, the youngest daughter and seventh child of her parents, J. Edwin Hardy and Ruby (Christy) Hardy. Growing up, she lived on the family farm with her large family until the age of sixteen, at which time, just as the Second World War ended, the family left the farm, being unable to work it any longer. Not long afterwards, at the age of seventeen, she married James Hickman Bryant, and the two raised five children: Johnny Bryant, Murray Allen Bryant, Carol (Bryant Kroll Seward Greer Seward) Lassey, Deena Kay (Bryant) Elliott, and Christy (Bryant) Rynearson.

Early in their married life, Patricia and James lived in Alexandria, Missouri, from which they moved to an apartment to Keokuk, Iowa. While they lived there, James was called back into service by the United States Navy, leaving the pregnant Patricia and her two sons behind for a while. During that time, Patricia was a stay-at-home wife, tending to the house and children as was customary in that place and time. She was active in school functions and attended local athletic events there, living as the very model of dutiful wifehood in the Midwestern United States of the 1950s.

After James was released from service, he and Patricia returned to Alexandria. While there, she continued to take care of the increasingly large family, doing so in part by putting in large household gardens; her having grown up on a working farm had suited her admirably to such pursuits. She also served as the treasurer of the local school board, helping to get a new school built in the town so as to avoid having to send her children and those of the local community some twenty miles away to attend classes.

In the following years, Patricia followed her husband to Peoria, Illinois, where he had been transferred for work. While there, she worked as an assistant to a special education teacher, taking courses in American Sign Language to facilitate her work. She continued in the job, which she describes as "good work" which she loved, as long as she and her husband lived in the area, rasing her younger children there.

With her husband, Patricia moved from the American Midwest to Louisiana in the early 1980s. The move was prompted in part by James's retirement, which allowed him to explore other fields. Also, their children had grown and moved south, so that they were largely alone in the Peoria area; they moved to be nearer to their increasing family. There, Patricia managed a small country grocery store, one largely serving communities dependent upon the oilfields.

They moved on to the Texas Hill Country in September 1985, settling initially in a mobile home park on the outskirts of Kerrville, Texas. There, Patricia worked in in-home health care, utilizing many of the skills she had developed in her ealier work with special-needs children. It was not long after that they purchased and moved to land on Elm Pass Road near Bandera, Texas. It was at that location that her husband died, following which event she moved in for a time with her younger brother, Edwin Dennis Hardy, who at that time lived in Kerrville.

Not long afterward, having suffered a broken ankle and quit work, Patricia moved in with her recently relocated daughter, Deena, and her family. While living with them, Patricia took on the task of caring for Deena's younger son, Daniel James Elliott, and Christy's child, David Dean Rynearson, while the children's parents were at work (Daniel's older brother, Geoffrey Bryce Elliott, was already enrolled in school at the time). As such, she was able to forge a particularly close bond with the boys, even as one grew between them.

After some years living with Deena and her family, Patricia moved again, returning to life with her younger brother, whose health had begun to grow impaired. For many years, they shared a house quietly, serving as a focal point for Patricia's children and grandchildren. Upon her brother's return to Louisiana, however, Patricia moved back in with Deena and her family.

Throughout her life, Patricia was known for her force of will. Once she decided upon a course of action or assumed a position, it was nearly impossible to dissuade her from it. Coupled with her fierce temper--especially concerning matters of family--this made her a person to be reckoned with even into her eighties. At the same time, Patricia was a caring and compassionate woman. So long as people behaved with respect towards her and her family, they were welcome in her home. It was admittedly true that, owing to her rural upbringing, she was not the best versed in formal etiquette, but she never demanded it form those around her, creating a markedly informal atmosphere in which jocularity prevailed.

Patricia was also a great lover and supporter of music and literature, listening to and playing much of the former and voraciously reading the latter. For many years, any moments of leisure she had--and they were not many, given her persistently-exercised domestic proficiency--were spent with book in hand, and she was at times known to read two or three paperback novels in a day. Or, before age-related issues inhibited her, she would often sit down at a piano and play one of the many songs she knew from years of living with and around the many musicians in her family.