- Date Of Birth: March 16, 1956
- Date Of Death: April 2, 2022
- State: Montana
Johanna “Jan” Louise Hardesty, age 66, passed away April 2, 2022. She was born March 16, 1956 in Battle Creek, Michigan, the daughter of Maynard Claire Bowers and Mary Joan Sweet as Janet Louise Bowers. After her parents’ divorce and her mother’s re-marriage, she was adopted at the age of 25 by her step-father Paul Lawton Anthony and took the name Johanna Louise Anthony at that time. She was united in marriage to Richard Lee Hardesty on June, 11, 1989, at the old amphitheater in Apgar, Glacier National Park.
Johanna was well educated, having acquired degrees in Communications Arts & Sciences, Math, Geology and Archaeology, a certificate in Land Surveying, and was active in many careers and hobbies in life. She was a cartographer for NOAA, and was involved with mapping the Florida coastline.
Most recently, she was a naturalist and gate ranger at Glacier National Park, a place she considered her true home. Her love for nature and the outdoors brought her there from Mesa Verde National Park. Johanna was artistically talented and creative with her black and white pencil style. She quickly became an expert digital artist and had an online gallery. Some of her inspiration for the art came from her talent as a writer. She and her husband were writing a series of fantasy books when she passed away. They also had operated a small tax business together for 27 years. Johanna was a collector of Japanese costume dolls and books, and shared with her husband three Cocker Spaniel dogs and two cats.
Johanna was a member of the Episcopal Church for many years, but finding the teachings of that church no longer to her liking, became a member of Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod, Columbia Falls, Montana, Matt Nelson, Pastor. She was still a member at her passing.
Johanna is survived by her husband of 33 years, Richard; nephew Jared Bowers of Great Falls, Montana; niece Erin Bowers-Long of Kalispell; her brothers Donald Anthony of Jerome, Michigan; Michael Anthony of Battle Creek, Michigan; David Anthony of East Leroy, Michigan; and Eerik Bowers of Saginaw, Michigan; sisters Peggy Pierce of Sun City Center, Florida and Piiamari Bowers of Canton, Michigan, and numerous Bowers and Sweet cousins. She is preceded in death by her father, Paul Anthony; mother, Mary Joan Sweet Bowers Anthony, her brother Maynard Claire Bowers, Jr. and her birth father, Maynard Claire Bowers.
