Kathryn Jean Hardin, 70 of Rapid City, SD, passed away peacefully on September 22, 2020 in Rapid City, SD. Kathy was born October 4, 1949, in Gordon, NE to George and Clara Hardin. She grew up with her siblings Jerry and Carolyn on their family farm in the Pleasant Hill Community of Gordon, NE, where she attended country school in a one room school house. She grew up doing 4-H projects, including an unfortunate pig ride, riding horses with her close friend Candy Goodrich, and tending to daily life on the farm. After graduating from high school in 1967, she went on to become a cosmetologist, received a degree in Business from National College, and later her teaching degree from Black Hills State University and her Master’s in Education from South Dakota State University. She taught many young minds at Stagebarn Elementary, Robbinsdale Elementary, and Red Shirt Table. She was also an elementary school principal in Onida, SD.
She loved to learn and believed that knowledge was of the utmost importance. Kathy had a huge personality, and made friends wherever she went. She loved fashion, thrift shopping, decorating, and doing her own home renovations with exquisite taste. She also loved to travel the world with her friends and family. She lived life to the fullest. She was a fighter. She came into this life as a blue baby, survived two cancers and a heart attack, not to mention husbands. She never gave up on anything or anyone. She truly cared about the people in her life and was like a mother to her nieces and nephews.
Kathy is survived by her son, Jeff Thompson, her brother Jerry Hardin, her nieces Jennifer Archibald and Jody Stillwagoner, her nephews Chris and Todd Hardin, and her beloved great nieces and nephews Sheridan Gerdes, Grayson, McKenna, and Kendra Stillwagoner. Kathy is preceded in death by her parents George and Clara Hardin and her sister Carolyn Peterka.