Mary Jo Harding

(05/20/2003) Mary Jo Harding Longtime Wimberley resident and artist, Mary Jo Harding, passed away quietly on Friday after a yearlong struggle with cancer. Mrs. Harding is a nationally-honored member of the Texas and New Mexico Watercolor Societies, the Southwestern Watercolor Society, and the National Watercolor Society. Her work has been juried into over 100 national shows and received over 60 awards including five ``Best of Shows.'' Her life, like her art, is a pallet arrayed with many colors. Mary Jo was born in Houston in Dec. 1927, and spent her primary school years in Harlingen. She graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 1949. She met and married Robert Harding in 1952. She and her husband, Bob, raised four sons. She lived in Air Force stations in Texas, Indiana, Alaska, California, Pakistan, Alabama, South Carolina, Germany, Nevada, and Oklahoma, before returning to Wimberley. She is survived by her husband, Colonel Robert C. Harding (USAF, Ret.), her four sons and their families and one sister. Her son, Colonel Richard C. Harding, his wife, Linda, and their two children, Ryan and Ali; her son, Charles D. Harding, his wife, Debby, and their two sons, Alex and Eric; her son, Edward S. Harding; her son, Lieutenant Colonel William J. Harding, his wife, Lieutenant Colonel Charlene Harding, and their three children, Christina, Austin and Chase; and her sister, Mrs. Betty Ann Korts and her husband, Larry. Services celebrating Mary Jo's life will be held at 10:30 a.m., Thursday, May 22, at St Stephen's Episcopal Church. Arrangements by Thomason Funeral Home; Ranch Road 12N, Wimberley, (512) 847-2226.