Hannah Jane Richards

Hannah Jane Bennett was born June 3, 1912 in East Liverpool, Ohio to Hannah Jane and Frank D. Bennett. She was the youngest of seven children and has out lived all of her siblings and parents. When Hannah was 9, the family moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico. The family decided Golden, Colorado was a better place. Her father was a part-time Methodist minister and a potter. He worked for Taylor, Knowles in East Liverpool, Ohio before settling in Golden to work for Coors Porcelain. At that time he had invented a glaze that was used on the pottery in Golden and to our knowledge, it is still that way. They also had moved to Golden for a drier climate for Hannah's mother's asthma. When Hannah was 13, her father died of tuberculosis and potters lung disease. This made a hardship on her and her mother in 1925. Hannah, being the "resourceful person" that she was, lied about her age to go to work at the Bell Telephone office in downtown Denver. She also had to quit school when they hired her, thinking she was 16 years old. She had been dating her future husband who was 18 years old; they ran away with another couple to Denver and got married. She was 16, almost 17. Red and Hannah were married in 1929 for 54 years until his death in 1981. Hannah was Methodist, Red was Episcopalian and they were married by Rev. Hoover, a Baptist minister, the brother of President Herbert Hoover. To this union, they had a son, Donald in 1931 and a daughter, Janice in 1936. During her lifetime, she was a hard worker. She cleaned houses for 25 cents an hour, took in washing and ironing for a dude ranch in Golden Gate Canyon and also worked at Coors Porcelain, helping to make the insulators for the hydrogen bomb. The opportunity came along to buy a restaurant in Golden. She made all of the pies, desserts and rolls, but her specialty was "Cornish Pasties". Golden had quite a few Cousin Jacks, people whose families came from Cornwall, Thursday night was Pastie Night and people would be lined up for half a block waiting to get that scrumptious dish. This lasted for about 6 years. Then they moved to the mountains and opened another restaurant on the Peak to Peak Highway. At that time Red was delivering milk and commuting. They had a beautiful home down the hill from their daughter, son-in-law and two grandchildren, Lynnell and Scattie. In 1965 Hannah was asked by Judge Willson to open and be responsible for the kitchen of the new Jefferson County Youth Center. She had experience working at the Colorado State Industrial School for Boys and she could cope pretty well with the young teenagers. The government decided to close the facility in 1970. Her family thought she would sit and retire. How wrong they were. The Colorado School of Mines in Golden needed a cook and manager for three different fraternity houses, so they knew who to call. She worked at three different ones for 6 years. By this time, she's thinking retirement maybe isn't too bad of an idea. She never sat down without some hand work, embroidery or knitting. She made jumpers for Lynnell and shorts for Scatty. About this time she got the quilt bug. She has made beautiful quilts, some of which have hung in the Colorado Museum. By this time she and Red have a great-grandson Jeremy. He was the light of their lives. When she would make a small quilt, he would say, "Hannah, I don't have one like that", and sure enough he would end up with it. Hannah and Red enjoyed their grandchildren and great grandson, and now they have two more great grandchildren; Liam is 9 years old and Hannah Grace is 7 years old. Jeremy always called his great grandparents Pop and Hannah, so when little Hannah was born, Liam said now we have Big Hannah and Little Hannah, and those names have stuck. The middle name of Grace is after Scat's aunt, who just passed away at the age of 102. Hannah's son Donald passed away in 1998 of cancer. It was very hard on her emotionally as they had lived together for 15 years. Near 2000 Scat and Janice wanted to retire in Windsor and wanted Hannah to go with them. It took her about 15 minutes to make up her mind and said, "sure, that would be great". It was OK for a couple of years, until Janice had to have back surgery and the very same week, Hannah fell and broke her hip. She was lucky that Good Samaritan had an opening. She's been there 9 years, made many friends and told Mark how to cook. Her hobbies besides cooking and quilting, were to go fishing and play cards. Her beautiful knitting turned out several sweaters for her family. She is survived by a loving daughter; Janice (Scat) Scatterday, granddaughter Lynnell (Dave) Schwebach, grandson Harold W III, (Adele) Scatterday, great grandson Jeremy (Jenni) Cameron, 2 great great grandchildren, Liam and Hannah Cameron and many loving nieces and nephews. The staff was very compassionate and loving towards her and she to them. She passed away Sunday, December 19, 2010.