- Date Of Birth: July 13, 1927
- Date Of Death: October 25, 2016
- State: Illinois
Harriet Louise Bradney, born July 13, 1927, and wife of the late Robert E. Bradney, passed away peacefully on October 25, 2016, surrounded by her daughters.
Daughter of the late Russel G. and Alice Dann Means of Columbus, Ohio, she was predeceased by her brother, Russel “Rusty” Means. She is survived by her sister, Evelyn McKitrick, of Columbus, Ohio. She is also survived by her daughters Nancy Peltzman (Sam), Lyn Pickel (Tony), Ann Bradney (Ezra Herman), and Gail Bradney (Lowell Miller). She cherished and was close to her 10 grandchildren—Shira Peltzman, Talya Peltzman, Meg Pickel Ziemann, Matt Pickel, Ann Pickel Beck, Brad Pickel, Scott Pickel, Faye Pickel, Monica Pickel, and Finn Alvaro—and her five great-grandchildren, all of whom saw her during the last year of her life.
Harriet graduated from Smith College, where she majored in Deaf Education, and landed a job right out of college in Jacksonville at the Illinois School for the Deaf. She then taught remedial reading and kindergarten for many years in Murrayville, Woodson, and Jacksonville’s public school systems, and also worked as a resource teacher for gifted children. She influenced and will be remembered by generations of students. Harriet drew both praise and criticism for her passionate belief that most kindergartners could and should learn to read and write, a practice she pioneered locally in the 1960s that is now accepted nationwide.
A fierce advocate for the needy, she was an active volunteer in many local charitable organizations, including Camp Care-a-Lot, Doorbell Dinners, and Salvation Army; hosted foreign exchange students through American Field Service; was the leader of a Girl Scout troop that was a “first of its kind,” integrating her daughters’ classmates with girls at the Illinois School for the Blind; and ran a summer playschool for children in her home.
A petite, five-foot-four redhead, she met the love of her life, six-foot-four attorney Robert “Brad” Bradney, on a blind date the first year she moved to Jacksonville, and they proceeded have an epic romance that lasted more than six decades. People in Jacksonville will remember Harriet and Brad on their daily morning walks, or their frequent bike rides around the town and Community Park. They enjoyed countless art, theatre, and music events in Jacksonville at MacMurray College, Illinois College, and Strawn Art Gallery, where they were patrons, and traveled all around the country with their daughters every summer to national parks.
During their empty nest years, which they called the “happiest years” of their marriage, Harriet and Brad took bike tours around the US and Europe, and traveled all around the world. Mostly, they loved the farm fields and vistas of Illinois, and spent countless weekends driving back roads in search of bald eagles and admiring the Illinois River valley’s natural beauty and bounty.
Harriet taught her four daughters the values of thrift, charity, manners, and productivity. A creative and energetic person, she filled their days with music, art, literature, crafts, and many of the “lost” domestic arts of homemaking, such as canning and preserving, soap making, sewing, and bread baking.
We will miss her dearly, but are happy that she is finally out of pain.
