Devoted grandmother, opera singer, pianist

Harriette Jean Schneider, 78, died peacefully at her Claremont home on April 20.

She was born April 5, 1940 in Mt. Clemens, Michigan to Donald B. and Stella R. Patterson. She was raised in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and graduated from Columbia, Missouri’s Stephens College in 1960, and from the University of Michigan in 1963 with a degree in music and history.

She was a concert pianist and an opera singer with a beautiful soprano voice. In 1966 she married Robert H. Schneider. She raised their two daughters, Veronica and Erica, in Plymouth, Michigan, where she served as choir director at St. Kenneth’s Church. The family relocated to Alaska in 1981, where Ms. Schneider worked as an in-court clerk until her retirement. She moved to Claremont in 2009 to be closer to her daughter, Veronica, and her grandchildren, whom she loved dearly.

She was preceded in death by her daughter, Erica Lynn Schneider-Thelen, in 1991, and by her husband, Robert H. Schneider, in February of this year.

Ms. Schneider is survived by her daughter and son-in-law, Veronica and Jacob Hazen of Claremont; and by her grandchildren Alexander, Julia and Sophia Hazen.

A rosary service will be held at 6:30 p.m. Monday, May 7 at Todd Memorial Chapel, 325 N. Indian Hill Blvd., Claremont. A funeral service is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, May 8 at Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Church, 435 N. Berkeley Ave., Claremont.

Memorial donations in Ms. Schneider’s name may be made to Casa Colina Hospital at casacolina.org/giving-support.aspx, or to the Inland Valley Humane Society at ivhsspca.org/ways-to-give.