Dr. Pamela Hearn

Dr. Pamela Hindman Hearn, 73, passed away Sunday, Aug. 23, 2009, at her home in Cape Girardeau.

She was born in Anna, Ill., on June 7, 1936, daughter of Ruel and LaWanda Pygett Hindman. She went to Anna-Jonesboro High School, where she excelled in academics and music.

At SIU, she got her undergraduate degree in music and theater, along the way performing numerous musical comedy and dramatic roles, including Laurey in "Oklahoma" and Blanche in "A Streetcar Named Desire." During those years, her mother and aunt got her involved in the world of beauty pageants. In that realm, a major achievement was to be chosen as Anna Centennial Queen in 1954.

After two years of high school teaching and a summer at the Highland Park, Ill., Music Theater, she returned to SIU to get her master's degree in English. There she met Charles. They were married in Carbondale Aug. 12, 1962, and immediately headed for Minneapolis-St. Paul, where she taught at The College of St. Catherine and later Hamlin University while he worked on his Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota.

While at St. Catherine's, she was nominated for a Danforth Teaching Award. In 1967, she and her husband joined the English Department at Southeast Missouri State University. There she was a popular and compelling teacher.

She was also a role model and mentor for countless students, colleagues and others. A strong advocate for women, she helped change the policy of hiring in wives of faculty members as lecturers, without full benefits, and she was a driving force in developing a women's studies minor at the university. While teaching full time and mothering two children, she worked on and eventually received her Ph.D. at SIU.

More than a dedicated career woman, she was a devoted wife and mother who loved her husband, children and grandchildren unconditionally and was tireless in giving them the attention and nurturing they needed.

Loving survivors include her husband, Charles; a son, Steve (Nancy) of Austin, Texas; a daughter, Melissa Vogelsang (Aaron) of Cape Girardeau; four grandchildren, Joey, Katie and Kelly Hearn of Austin, Ava Vogelsang of Cape Girardeau; and a cousin, Judy (John) Stoddard of Florida.

She was preceded in death by her parents.

Friends may call from 5 to 8 p.m. Thursday at Ford and Sons Mount Auburn Funeral Home.

The funeral will be at 1 p.m. Friday at the funeral home, with the Rev. Bob Towner presiding. Entombment will be in Cape County Memorial Park Mausoleum.

Online condolences may be made to the family at www.fordandsonsfuneralhome.com.