Coleen Hardin passed away peacefully at her home in Austin Texas, in the loving and tender care of her husband, family, and her caretakers. She was 97 years of age, and lived a remarkable and rich life.
Breta Dial and A.V. Grant’s first-born child, Coleen was born Denver, Colorado on April 20, 1922. In 1925 the family moved to Austin, Texas, where A.V. attended law school at the University of Texas. The family later moved to Wichita Falls, Texas. Coleen attended Carrigan Grade School in Wichita Falls.
Coleen started performing at an early age, reciting poems and songs taught to her by her mother. In second grade, Coleen and schoolmate sang Maid of Japan in three-part harmony on stage. For the performance, she wore her mother's long black altered kimono.
The family then moved to Longview, Texas, where Coleen, in her early teens, began private lessons in elocution and theatre. She performed for civic organizations in plays and monologues, and studied ballet and tap dancing. Her performance in school plays began at age sixteen, playing Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, an outdoor theatre production by the Longview Little Theatre. Coleen graduated from Longview High School in 1939.
Blessed with charismatic good looks, Coleen won the Miss Longview beauty contest, and with another contestant as Miss East Texas. She attended Christian College (now Columbia College), in Columbia, Missouri, where she played leads in a number of plays, working with several directors, one being Josephine Dillon, Clark Gable’s first wife. Coleen transferred to the University of Texas at Austin as a drama major and performed in plays staged in Austin’s Little Theatre, and the Curtain Club with the UT Drama Department.
In 1943 she received a scholarship to join Pasadena Playhouse, working with director and producer Margo Jones. It was in California that she became friends with the playwright Tennessee Williams, typing his scripts for $5 each. In 1944 she joined Actors’ Equity and toured California in a lead role with a professional company of Baby Mine.
Coleen met future husband Dick Hardin in February 1942, while both were students at the University of Texas at Austin. They were married in January 1945 in New York City, upon Dick’s return from service in the Pacific Theatre during World War II. During this period, Dick attended Marine Corps Officer Candidate School at Princeton University. After the war, Coleen and Dick moved back to Austin, and she continued performances in theater, radio, and later for television. Daughter Lise was born in 1948 and son Rick in 1950.
From April through December 1952, the family lived in New Zealand, where Dick studied oceanographic art and archeology through a Fulbright scholarship. Returning to Texas, Dick headed up the art department at San Angelo College in San Angelo, Texas for two years. During this period Coleen taught speech and radio drama and directed plays at the college.
The family returned to Austin in 1956, which is their home today.
Coleen was featured in a 1960 TV film called Target Austin, produced by local television station KTBC. The film has been preserved by the Texas Archive of the Moving Image and can be viewed on its website.
For six years in the 1970s, Coleen served as director of Hardin House, an iconic women’s dormitory established in 1937 by Dick’s mother, Stella, on Rio Grande Street in Austin. Coleen also helped Dick with the opening of Hardin House North in 1970, in time to host notable guests and dignitaries attending the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum dedication ceremony in May 1971. Coleen retired from Hardin House in early 1980.
In 1987, Coleen and Liz Carpenter gathered their talented friends in Austin to form the GBATTS (Getting Better All The Time Singers). For 26 years, the GBATTS performed for clubs, churches, and events. Coleen and Dick also were charter members of the Headliners Club and Westwood Country Club, and were longtime organizers of Austin’s Fiesta, when the arts festival was held at Laguna Gloria Art Museum.
Coleen was a member of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, and the United Daughters of the Confederacy. She received the Jefferson Davis Historical Gold Medal Award from the UDC for her 2006 book Miss Emma, about her paternal grandmother Emma Florence Smith Grant and her family. In 2008, she published a second book, Jim and Cora Dial: From Altamont to Aztec, about her maternal grandparents and their families. Her third book, Mr. Rube: Reuben Henry Grant, about her paternal grandfather and his family, was published in 2016. Her final book, Deep in the Heart of Texas, published in 2019, chronicles the captivating life stories of Coleen and Dick Hardin.
Coleen Grant Hardin’s greatest loves were her family and family history. Likewise, she loved theater, song, art, poetry, dance, and family reunions. She loved her Jack Russel Terriers Jamie and Maggie.
She loved to entertain family and friends in her home. Evenings included story-telling, singing, laughter, dining, and a celebration of life.
Coleen will be sorely missed by her family and friends in this world…. and will be welcomed in the next world into the embrace of family, friends, Jamie and Maggie, and her beloved daughter Lisa who have gone before her and welcome her arrival.
Visitation will be held on Sunday, December 15, 2019 - 4pm to 6pm and Funeral Service on Monday, December 16, 2019 – 11am at Weed-Corley-Fish Funeral Home, 3125 North Lamar Blvd., Austin, TX 78705.
Coleen loved peonies, however in lieu of flowers consider a donation to:
Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, https://www.cff.org/give-today/, In memory of Lise Hardin or to Austin Pets Alive, https://www.austinpetsalive.org/donate, In memory of Maggie and Jamie
SHARE OBITUARY
v.1.8.18