My Pen Pal since 1979 recently died - RIP Debbie Knauss (Deb Hackman)

Deborah Knauss Hackman
December 13, 1958 —- February 23, 2023

(Note:  I meant to publish this post in February or March of 2023…the year passed quickly and I never completed the post until late December 2023, but remembering my friend Debbie Knauss Hackman as 2023 ends is so important to me.)

When I was newly married and 22 years old,  I put an advertisement in SKATING Magazine for an ice dance partner.  I got all sorts of responses.  One response was from Debbie Knauss who thought she’d seen me perform at the US National Figure Skating Championships.  She wasn’t interested in being my skating partner, but wanted to tell me she saw me skate and enjoyed my skating.  It turned out she saw someone named Judy Ferris perform, not Jo Ann Schneider Farris (me), but since she wrote me such a nice letter, I asked her if she’d like to be my pen pal since we were about the same age.

So….

When I was 22 years old in 1979, (Debbie Knauss) Deb Hackman and I became Pen Pals.  

We were so much a part of one another’s lives for decades, but we didn’t meet face to face until 2014.  

On February 24, 2023, I learned that Deb suddenly passed away.  I was in shock.  

The photos below are from our day together in 2014.  Also in the photo is Lisa Threston who I went to junior high school with who knew Deb too, my late father, and Deb’s daughter Rachel.  

I feel like a piece of my life has been ripped away suddenly since we poured our hearts out to one another as young women.  We were there for one another for marriages, births, deaths and losses, holidays, and life’s ups and downs.  Just knowing I can’t just say “Hi” will be difficult