Judy Anderson Harper

Judy Anderson Harper, artist, needlepoint designer, teacher and writer, found peace on February 28, 2011. She was born in Austin on July 6, 1940, a fifth generation Texan, the older of two daughters, to Robert Gilmore Anderson and Patricia Shipley Anderson. She graduated from Abilene High School and went on to attend the University of Texas at Austin from 1958 to 1962. She was a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma, and studied interior design and Spanish, at a time when female undergraduates were "coeds" and had to dress up to go to class. Judy thought this was unnecessary and stifled her individuality.

It was at the University that Judy fell in love with Mexican culture and art, an interest which was only intensified when she moved to Mexico City with her first husband, Joe Ruelas. After three children and a brief career as an interior designer in Austin, she moved to East Texas and married her second husband, John Gordon Harper. This marriage produced three more children, and it was during this the time behind the "Pine Curtain" her career as a needlepoint designer really blossomed. She enjoyed success as a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist and magazine editor as well as teaching classes in art and design to appreciative audiences. She appeared on the "Today Show" to discuss her intricate needlepoint designs. After this period she lived in Abilene, Florida, and in 1995 she moved back to Austin to take care of her first grandchild, Madeline Jane Anderson. Her creativity continued in her designs for her grandchildren, both needlepoint and also in the form of painted furniture and pottery. She continued to design for needlepoint stores in Austin and elsewhere and for St. Andrew's School and St. David's and Good Shepherd Episcopal churches. She also started writing a blog, "Possibilities, etc!" which increased her already wide circle of friends. She will be remembered for her talent, creativity, and for allowing her children to stay up past bedtime to watch movies, as long as they were "classics." Fortunately for them, "classics" constituted a rather large swath of movies, from anything starring Victor Mature to Elizabeth Taylor. She even let us watch "Monty Python's Flying Circus" late, on Sunday nights. For these indulgences we are grateful. Also, passing on the same day as Jane Russell would have made her chortle with glee.

Judy leaves us to join her beloved granddaughter, Madeline, who will welcome her Granny to an artists' colony in Heaven, after they make a stop for a package of "Cherry Sours." She is survived by her mother, Patricia Shipley Anderson, her sister Patricia Gayle Anderson, both of Abilene; her six children, Joe Anderson and his wife Sarah, Jean Marie Hunt, Charles Ruelas, Jennifer Harper Brenner and her husband Steve, James Harper and Samuel Harper. Judy's earthbound grandchildren are Julia Frances Anderson, Grace Hickman, Jake Brenner, Seth Brenner, Sophie Hunt and Sierra Harper.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests contributions be made to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital or Austin Hospice's Christopher House. "He hath given His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways."

Psalms 91:11