Stephanie Anne Townsend Hiers

Let Us Pause To Honor the Memory of
Stephanie Anne Townsend Hiers
March 2, 1972 – April 20, 2022
"I'm like a cockroach. You just can't kill me," she would say. And for many years, Stephanie Anne Townsend Hiers was right. She contended with medical diagnoses ranging from a brain tumor, to adrenaline failure, to heart disease, each prognosis seeming worse than the last, yet still far out in the distance, until April 20, 2022. Stephanie was evermore talking about the size and placement of her heart, which was in fact smaller than normal and not at all in the right place anatomically in her body, though gigantic and well-intentioned in the expression of her life and love. And ultimately it was the size of that heart, one that had grown too big, that took her from us in her fiftieth year.
Her heart wasn't the only outsized part of her anatomy. "Look at the brain on this girl! It's so big!" she had taken to proclaiming following the brain tumor. But even before she had scientific proof measured in millimeters, we all knew this was so. She was brilliant, ever in pursuit of new learning and deeper understanding. And only a girl with big smarts could be that quick and witty and multi-talented. Stephanie was proud of her bartending skills, was a strategic entrepreneur, and reprised an early and beloved vocation as an art model in her later years for the Tuesday Night Drawing Club at the West Street Art Center on Main.
Stephanie was kind and generous, fearless and fun. She suffered the illusion that if you were drawn to organization that you would be organized. Indeed, she was a coveter of office and organizational products, and a horrible housekeeper.
Stephanie lived her all-too-brief life big and fearlessly and with the kind of adventure and abandon that makes the normal humans among us a touch apprehensive. She had big dreams, and big love, a big personality, and always a big plan. She spent her life trying to leave this world a better place than she had found it, and she did so one person, one animal, one interaction at a time. She had the sweetest smile, the kindest eyes, and the best skin.
She was her sister's (Valerie Townsend Livesay) biggest cheerleader and most enduring and endearing tormenter. Valerie reciprocated both cheerleading and tormenting in kind, and the two were hopelessly devoted to each other even as they occasionally needed to be so from a distance. Stephanie taught the niece and nephew she cherished that "bird is the word" and was as enthusiastic as they were to engage in the "Guess what?" "Chicken butt" banter that made them giggle endlessly. Stephanie was a beautiful adult soul that somehow, magically, never abandoned the child in herself, and Sloane (8) and Townsend Livesay (12) were instantly and infinitely smitten.
They were not alone. You couldn't help but be enchanted by this exquisitely beautiful woman who also had the courage to reveal her deepest wounds and would love you even more for
yours. She was loved so fully back by the aunt (Suzan Crowton) and cousins (Lindsey Ammend and Jeffrey Crowton) she adored and the passel of friends from around the world who would accompany her along the wild adventure of her life and see her through her darkest days. They include her "Mad(ison) Girls", her Steel Magnolias in South Carolina, and her kindred spirits from South Africa.
And, by her side through it all was her lifelong, childhood friend "Joe" (Jeannie Conrad), her co-conspirator, her safe haven, and her heart for nearly four decades. She was also adored by Jeannie's parents, Ed and Sandy Sollinger, and was referred to and introduced as their "adopted daughter."
Stephanie possessed a brilliance that both drew you to her and left you in awe. She burned brightly, and when you stepped into her glow whether for a moment or a lifetime, you were bathed in her warmth and illumination, and you, too, felt like a star. She was an extraordinary human. The world is dimmer in her absence, though those who knew her are profoundly enriched.
Stephanie is survived by her mother, Babette Wartenberg and father and step-mother, Guy and Jeanne Townsend.
CELEBRATION OF LIFE
A celebration of Stephanie's life will take place at The Heritage Park Welcome Center (109 Cragmont St., Madison, IN) from 7-10 pm on May 14. Steph never was much of a cook, but she did love a good cocktail. Accordingly, there will be no food served, but we will share a champagne toast in her honor as we launch floating lanterns into the sky at sunset.
MEMORIAL EXPRESSIONS
In lieu of flowers, please send donations to the Jefferson County Animal Shelter (2727 Hannah Dr., Madison, IN 47250). Cards are available at the Morgan & Nay Funeral Centres of Madison and Hanover. Online condolences, remembrances and memorials can be left at www.morgan-nay.com
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