Donna Suthers Hardin (1927-2022)

SCOTT, SUTHERS, HARDIN, SCHOCKER

Posted By: Ken Wright (email)
Date: 3/7/2022 at 15:36:36

Donna Scott Suthers Hardin passed away Saturday, March 5, 2022, at the Davenport Lutheran Home, one day shy of her 95th birthday.

She was born March 6, 1927, the daughter of Lester and Grace (Schocker) Scott. They lived in rural Jackson and Clinton counties as she grew up. She attended Mt. Ida and Watson rural schools, Baldwin H.S. and graduated from Maquoketa H.S. in 1944. She married Leon Suthers in 1946. They had one daughter, Connie Suthers Patridge. After Leon's death in 1986, she married William "Bill" Hardin in 1988.

She was too young to start teaching when she graduated high school so she worked at the Fishing Tackle Company in Maquoketa for one year before attending Mount St. Clare College the summer of 1945 after which she began teaching at Mt. Ida, the one-room school near Lost Nation, IA; the school she had attended until 5th grade. She then taught at North Bend near Maquoketa, where her grandfather, August Schocker, had taught 60 years earlier. After a short time teaching at the rural Maquoketa #8 school, she taught three years at Hurstville and seven years at Fulton, IA. At Hurstville and Fulton, she had as many as 40 students in grades K-8. She negotiated with the school boards until she was the highest paid one-room school teacher in the county. When the rural students were brought into Maquoketa, she taught third grade, one year in the library basement, one year at the Youth Center and then 28 years at Briggs Elementary, retiring in 1989.

For twenty years she attended college classes, summers, nights, and weekends, to earn her BA degree in 1965. She earned enough credits after that to equal another year of college.

She and Leon were members of the DeWitt Area Road Runners Camping group, the National Campers and Hikers Association, and the Joinerville Boat Club. They were in square dancing groups and bowled. They played cards with neighbors and friends. They traveled and camped extensively for years.

She and Bill also were members of those groups, played euchre whereever they were, and traveled extensively. She made it to Hawaii twice, Europe, Mexico, Canada and most of the 50 states. For 26 years she wintered in Donna, Texas. There she earned a shelf of trophies for playing shuffleboard. She always loved to go fishing. The last few years, blindness, curtailed her life considerably.

She is survived by her daughter and son-in-law, Connie and Don Patridge of Davenport, IA; grandsons, Daniel (Kristin) Patridge and their son, Alex, and Adam (Laura) Patridge and their son, David, and their daughter, Allison. She was preceded in death by her parents, Lester and Grace Scott, husbands, Leon Suthers and William Hardin, and brother, Dale Scott.

A celebration of Donna's life will be held at 11 A.M., Saturday, March 19, 2022, at Carson Celebration of Life Center in Maquoketa. Visitation will be held prior to the service from 10 A.M. to 11 A.M. at the funeral home. Burial will be at the Union Cemetery, rural Maquoketa, Iowa.

The family requests that masks be worn during the visitation and services.

In lieu of other expressions of sympathy, memorials may be made to Camp Courageous of Iowa, Alzheimer's Association or the Maquoketa Schools Education Fund.

Online Condolences may be left at www.CarsonAndSon.com.

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