Kristine Anne “Kris” Harpenau of Evansville, passed away peacefully on January 27, 2024, surrounded by loved ones. She was born May 27, 1949, in Tell City, to Jacob and Helen (Fournier) Harpenau.
She graduated from Academy Immaculate Conception High School in Ferdinand. She earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Education from Oakland City University and taught music in Evansville for 10 years. She earned a Master’s Degree in Counseling from Saint Joseph College in Hartford, Connecticut, and practiced counseling in Phoenix, Arizona, and Southern Indiana. Kris was a Reiki Master and believed in the power of healing touch. She led many retreats and workshops teaching Reiki and Centering Prayer. Kris was a former member and prioress of the Sisters of St. Benedict.
For the last eight years, Kris has divided her time between Evansville and Ajijic, Mexico, where she volunteered in an orphanage and a migrant center. She was a member of an international choir, Los Cantantes and ministered to the homebound in her parish in Mexico. She loved her family, friends, music, nature, hiking, dancing, traveling, reading, the beach, playing cards, and road trips, spreading love and joy wherever she went.
Everyone who knew Kris would say she was sweet and loving, and she was. What made her perfect was that she was also salty with a great sense of humor.
She leaves behind Jenny and Joe Smith, their children, and grandchildren, Robert (Janice) Harpenau, Mary Weyer, David (Judy) Harpenau, Timothy Hagedorn, Mark (Karen) Hagedorn and many nieces and nephews whom she loved.
She was preceded in death by her parents, Jacob and Helen Harpenau, her brother, Charles Harpenau, her sister, Janet Lemaire, and her sister-in-law, Diane Patterson.
In Kris’s words: “After I retired, I took the biggest risk of my life and moved to Mexico on a journey of joy with my favorite person. This leap of faith brought me great joy and infused life into my being! Studying Spanish in Guatemala, hiking 9,000 ft. to see the millions of monarch butterflies that migrate to Mexico, hiking the 500 hundred mile Camino de Santiago in Spain, dancing under a full moon, meeting Pope Francis in Mexico City, sea kayaking, and participating in a Mayan cacao ceremony in Guatemala are just a few of my adventures… Mary Oliver wrote, “Tell me what it is you plan to do with your one wild and precious life.” God created us to live joyfully and to love one another. Ask yourself: What leap of faith do I need to take? And, What am I doing to infuse joy and love into my life and the lives of others?”
Despite her remarkable, adventure-filled life, Kris was, at her heart, a very humble woman. Her final wishes were for her funeral to be simple and without ostentation. A funeral Mass will be celebrated at St. Paul’s Catholic Church in Tell City, on Friday, February 23 at 11 a.m. Burial will be private.
The family would like to thank Heart to Heart Hospice for their loving care during Kris’ last days.
Local donations honoring Kris can be made to FEED Evansville, where she volunteered throughout the pandemic.
