Sandra Jane (STRATTON) Gardner

Sandra Jane Gardner (nee Stratton), age 80, passed to her eternal resting place in heaven on Saturday, January 14, 2017 after a brief struggle with cancer. She died peacefully, surrounded in love by her husband and children.

Sandra was born on September 15, 1936, in Chicago, Illinois, the daughter of the late William Grant Stratton and Marion Frazier (nee Hook). Sandra graduated from Springfield High in 1954, and then from the University of Arizona in 1958, where she was a member of the Chi Omega sorority.

In 1961, Sandra married her childhood sweetheart, Patrick Gardner, and lived in many different cities during their life together, including St. Louis, Missouri; Cleveland, Ohio; Detroit, Michigan; Germantown, Tennessee; and spent over thirty years in Plano, Texas. In each place she formed life-long friendships with neighbors that were loved like family. Her loves in life were her family and friends, travel and horses. She stayed in close contact with many dear friends from childhood, college, the many places she and Pat lived over the years, and even friends met on their travel adventures. Sandra was known for her correspondence and hand written notes.

As the oldest daughter of former Illinois governor William G. Stratton and Marion Frazier (nee Hook), she would regale her family with fond memories of life in the governor's mansion in Springfield, Illinois. The family enjoyed hearing stories of her audiences with two different sitting queens, Queen Frederika of Greece during a European trip in the summer of 1958 and Queen Elizabeth of Britain during her United States trip in 1959. She and her husband Pat loved to travel and went to Europe many times, with a particular love for France and Germany. She created beautiful scrapbooks of their experiences. She loved horses, especially her beloved horse Royal Man, and was an avid equestrian as a young girl. In addition to raising two children, she loved spending time with her only grandchild, Abigail. She faithfully attended the Christ United Methodist Church of Plano for 34 years and was a woman of great faith. She always approached life with a positive, can-do attitude, even after she became sick.

Sandra is survived by her husband of 55 years, Patrick Gardner; daughter Lori Harn (nee Gardner), her husband Mikal Harn and their daughter Abigail Harn of San Antonio, Texas; son Jeff Gardner and his wife Caroline Grahmann Gardner of Houston, Texas; sisters Diana Weiskopf (nee Stratton) and Nancy Taylor (nee Stratton); and many other relatives and close friends.

The funeral service will be held at the Porter Loring Mortuary located at 1101 McCullough Avenue, San Antonio, Texas 78212 at 11:30 a.m. on Friday, February 3rd, followed by a graveside service at the Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery located at 1520 Harry Wurzbach Road in San Antonio, Texas 78209.