Katharine Elsie Hardie

Katharine Elsie Hardie (Copping) was born on Sept. 1, 1926 to George and Myra Copping in Glendive, Mont., where she was raised. She passed in the early morning hours of Dec. 28, 2015, with her immediate family at her side.

Katharine was involved in 4H, belonged to the Order of the Rainbow and worked for the Northern Pacific Railroad until moving to Spokane in 1945 to attend Kinman Business University.

There she met and married Delbert Hardie on May 30, 1948. The two lived in the Spokane Valley until 1959 when they moved closer to Delbert's workplace at Eastern Washington State College. There, with five children, they lived in a two-bedroom house Delbert built as a temporary home while building a larger home on Betz Road.

Katharine was involved as a homemaker, a 4H leader and both she and Delbert were members of the Grange.

Katharine began working full time at EWSC in 1970 in the office of the registrar and continued until her retirement in 1993 at the age of 67. Following retirement, she devoted herself to cooking, gardening, cake decorating and traveling with Delbert. Aside from traveling, Katharine's favorite activity was gardening, and she would spend hours tending her gardens filled primarily with dahlias, roses, iris and petunias.

Katharine's greatest joy, however, was devoting herself to her family. Every year there would be multiple family gatherings at their home, from birthdays to holidays.

She was especially fond of the Christmas season, when the family would gather at the house on Christmas Eve, attend services at the United Methodist Church, then drive through the community looking at Christmas lights and finally open gifts back at their home.

Katharine is survived by her five children and their spouses, Linda Portwood (Dave), David Hardie (Stacey), Anita Korta (Kevin), Mark Hardie (Shirley) and Larry Hardie (Krissy); her grandchildren, Mandy, Chad, Kerry Ann, Joshua, Kasey, Christian, Kalen, Nathan, September, Meghan, Matthew, Michael and Brandon, plus 21 great-grandchildren.

Katharine will be greatly missed. A memorial honoring her life will be held on Saturday, Jan. 9, 2016 at 11 a.m. at the United Methodist Church in Cheney. That will be followed by a reception at the same location and a graveside ceremony at Spokane-Cheney Memorial Gardens. The family suggests donations be made to the Hospice House of Spokane. Visit the online guestbook at cheneyfuneral.com.