Nan Nunes Hackman

Nan Nunes Hackman, of Memphis, passed away peacefully on November 2st 2021 in the arms of her beloved husband of 45 years, Béla Hackman. Having battled Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma for three years, she was preparing for a potentially curative treatment at Vanderbilt University Medical Center when she contracted Covid-19, which in her weakened state, she was ultimately unable to overcome. Her friends and family together mourn the loss of an extraordinary woman, taken from us too soon, who filled many roles: wife, mother, grandmother, sister, daughter, daughter-in-law, aunt, and dear friend.

Nan was born in Memphis, Tennessee, on September 22nd 1954 to William Theodore Nunes and Jenny (Graham) Nunes. She was the second of five children and the only girl, much to her dismay. After spending her early years in Honolulu and Denver while her father was a physician stationed in the Army, she moved with her family back to Nashville in 1963. At 17 she was crowned Davidson County Junior Miss, which was almost certainly clinched by her dramatic rendition of Lady Macbeth’s sleepwalking scene. She received a generous scholarship and went on to finish 4th runner up at the state pageant. She liked to remind us of her title, usually facetiously, and although she’d be the first to admit she was chewing the scenery as Lady Macbeth, she really treasured that tiara. Around the same time, she was a cellist in the Nashville Youth Symphony admiring (and ogling) from afar the principal bassoonist (future husband Béla) before finally landing him as her boyfriend while a sophomore at Vanderbilt University. Once she finished her B.A. in Psychology, they married in 1976 and moved to Memphis where Béla was in medical school. Their son, Will, was born in 1981, and shortly thereafter, Béla was stationed in the Navy Medical Corps in Puerto Rico. They spent just over two years on the island and cherished every moment. In 1984 they returned to Memphis where they welcomed a daughter, Olivia (Barker), raised two German Shepherds, and many, many cats.

She taught English in the gifted program (CLUE) in the Memphis City Schools for over 10 years, but one of her greatest joys was videography. She began by documenting her family, editing together family videos that were equal parts hilarious and mortifying. Later on she incorporated video projects into her teaching, sometimes borrowing her daughter’s dress up clothes as costumes when they presented A Midsummer Night’s Dream on camera. In the absence of any documentation of her daughter’s ballet performances, she stepped in and learned how to film in challenging theater conditions. She gracefully rode the transition from analog to digital, filming and photographing dance for over a decade. By 2006 she found her way into the Memphis independent film community, co-producing award-winning documentary Meanwhile in Memphis with Rob Allen Parker, and collaborating on numerous other fellow filmmakers’ projects. In this later phase of her life, she made some of her dearest friends and genuinely delighted in participating in the creative process of capturing and editing footage to tell a story.

She is survived by her husband, two children, and four grandchildren, whom she adored as much as they adored her. Her physical presence on this earth will be sorely missed, but her spirit, stories, and life lessons will continue to sustain us for years to come.

A memorial service will be organized in the spring of 2022, date TBD. In lieu of flowers, please donate in her memory to the Memphis Symphony Orchestra. Supporting local artists was very important to her.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.Woodlawn-Roesch-PattonFH.com for the HACKMAN family.