Florence Harner-Hall

Florence Harner-Hall was born June 17th, 1943, in Seneca County, Ohio. She passed away peacefully at home June 5th, 2020 in Indianapolis, Indiana surrounded by love.

Florence or “Flo” as her friends and family called her, is preceded in death by her mother and father, brother Gene Kinney, husband Les Harner, daughter Leslie Harner, and grandson Matthew Harner.

She is survived by her husband Jimmie Hall, sons Tim Kohler and Mike Harner, daughters Cindy Baker and Debbie Alderson, many grandchildren and great grandchildren, brother Ralph Kinney, and sisters Carol Kinney, Cheri Roush, Judy Pierce, and Ann (Mag) Coykendall.

Flo graduated in 1961 at Elm Valley in Ashley, Ohio. From there, she worked at Jane M. Case Hospital as a midwife in labor and delivery through 1967. She also worked as a waitress until 1969 when she met her late husband Les Harner, and made the move from Ohio to Indiana. Flo spent the rest of her working career at IPS School system where she served as the beloved head cafeteria clerk, becoming a grandma to hundreds of kids unrelated to her.

If there is one thing you should know about Flo, is her great love of sports. Football, basketball, Racing, it didn’t matter. If it was the evening, and there was a sports game on, she was watching. She would often have lengthy phone calls with her granddaughter where they would debate professional basketball players and talk about the game. One player that always seemed to come into the conversation whether intended or not, was Pacer’s star, Myles Turner. She often referred to him as “her guy” but if we were being honest, all of the athletes were “her guy”.

Not only did Flo love watching sports, she was also a great athlete in her prime where she played volleyball and softball through highschool, continuing her love of softball after school. However, late in her life her love of sports grew to include lacrosse, although she could never remember the name of that sport. Flo was also an avid bowler in a league, and loved to take her family to bowl a few frames from time to time.

One of Flo’s passions in life was music, most specifically country and bluegrass. Her house was always filled with the sound of music and love, and she would often find herself harmonizing with her late husband Les Harner as he played his guitar.

Anyone that knows Flo, knows that she was the mom and person that gave everything she had to give. Whether that be the president of the P.T.A at school #94 in Indianapolis, or running election polls in her neighborhood. If Flo had time, she was giving it to help others.

Flo had a great love of traveling. One of her favorite things to do was going on family vacations. It didn’t matter what day of the week it was, what was going on the world, what obligations she had, she would just get in the car with her husband Jimmie and hit the roads. Sometimes she would head to Ohio to see her family, but more times than not she would take a backroad and just enjoy the open road.

However, the greatest thing about Flo wasn’t her passion for sports or music or traveling, it was her passion for family, but family was defined differently for Flo. It didn’t matter if you were blood, if you were black or white, if you were rich or poor, if you were happy or sad, Flo was a grandmother, a mother, a friend to all she came into contact with. The neighborhood kids, the school kids, honestly any kid became her own and was treated as such. She was loved by all and she loved all.

Up until her final days with all of us, she was the rock to lean on, the shoulder to cry on, the ear who would listen, the heart that would care, the voice of reason when needed, the one to show up when called, and the only words to truly encompass all that was and will live on to be eternally is she's "TOP SHELF".

A private graveside service will take place at Washington Park East Cemetery