Phyllis Hansen Hudry

HOLLISTER, MO - Age 91, passed away on Monday November 19, 2012. Phyllis Anne was born in May 1921, to William R. and Gertrude (Spillum) Hansen in Racine, Wisconsin. She married Jack Hudry in December 1945. She lived in Racine until 1988, when she moved to Clarkston, Washington, and then in 2000 to the Branson, Missouri, area, in both cases to be close to her daughter Sue Anne Link. She graduated from Washington Park High School in January 1939, and then attended the Racine-Kenosha Rural Normal School in Union Grove, Wisconsin, graduating in 1941. She taught elementary school in Kansasville and subsequently in Sturtevant until her marriage. In the mid-1960s she enrolled at Racine’s Dominican College and received her BA degree in English in June 1968. She was only a few credits short of earning a Master's Degree in Library Science when Dominican College suddenly closed in 1974. Phyllis can be best described as a “life-long learner.” She always gave great credit to her Park High School teachers for stimulating her intellectual interests, arousing her curiosity about the world around her, and encouraging her writing. She particularly enjoyed writing poetry and did so for her entire life, publishing her poetry in local newspapers and magazines in the Racine, Clarkston, and the Branson areas. To hone her writing skills, Phyllis during the 1970s enrolled in a number of writing courses at Racine’s Gateway Technical College. This led to her work as a reporter for Racine’s weekly Shoreline Leader newspaper, where she contributed feature stories regularly in the years before she moved to Clarkston. She also served as a writer for the many organizations she belonged to in Clarkston and later in the Hollister-Branson area. She also loved to make presentations, both serious and entertaining, to these organizations, among them library groups, book clubs, church societies, and social groups. While living in Clarkston she started participating in Elderhostel programs. She found this so stimulating that by the time her health began to decline she had attended 101 Elderhostel Programs all over the United States. She continued her contact with the many friends she made while attending these programs. During her decade-long residence in the Hollister-Branson area, Phyllis was an active member of the Shepard Hills Garden Club, the Kimberling City PEO group, the Red Hat group, and the Kimberling Area Library. She was also a long-time member of the American Association of University Women. Phyllis’s husband, Jack, preceded her in death, as did her son, John Robert. She is survived by her loving daughter, Sue Link of Hollister; three brothers, Lee (Sally) Hansen of Madison WI; Forest (Valerie) of Easton, MD; and Harlan (Ruth) of Minneapolis, MN; cousins Rosemary Fritchen of Racine, WI, and Arlene Verzy and Anne Marie Whalley, both of California; and various nieces and nephews. Her dear niece Marni Foderaro of Fox River Grove, Illinois, deserves special mention for her many kindnesses over the years. The Hansen family expresses its deepest thanks to Phyllis's daughter Sue for the loving care she gave to her mother after Phyllis moved to the Branson Area, and particularly during the final months of Phyllis's life when Sue closely supervised her mother's care. Thanks are also offered to the staff of Wedgewood Gardens Assisted Living Facility of Reeds Spring, MO, and to personnel from Hospice Compassus of Branson, MO. A private service will be held at a later date.