Harriett Tucker of Loganville and Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II had something in common – lineage that by some estimates could be traced at least to the 12th century.
The bloodline, however, doesn’t involve their families, but a certain prized small herding dog, the Welsh corgi.
A champion breeder of the Cardigan Welsh corgi, Mrs. Tucker was just as passionate about her "Cardis" as the 85-year-old British monarch is about her Pembroke Welsh corgi, which the queen has preferred since both women were teenagers.
Mrs. Tucker first started training the no-tail Pembroke in the 1970s but later switched to the long-tail Cardigan. She was a member of the Cardigan Welsh Corgi Club of America, in addition to the Atlanta and Lawrenceville kennel clubs.
If she’d ever had the opportunity to sit down to tea with the queen, the Gwinnett County commoner would probably try to get the royal crown to set aside decades of tradition and give her beloved Cardigan breed a try.
"I think she would tell the queen that she didn't have good judgment in corgis," Mrs. Tucker's younger brother, Alfred Hanner III of Summerfield, Fla., said with a laugh.
Harriett Virginia Hanner Tucker, 86, a retired Emory University Hospital nurse, died Nov. 4 after a sudden and brief illness. Family said she had been in great health until she contracted an infection that led to sepsis. Services are set for 3 p.m. Saturday at Tim Stewart Funeral Home in Snellville.
She grew up in Decatur, one of three children born to Alfred and Lois Hanner, and graduated from Decatur Girls High School. When the federal government funded a nurses cadet corps at Emory in 1942 to train more nurses for World War II, Harriett Hanner enrolled. She finished her training just as the war was winding down but remained as a registered nurse at Emory for decades until retirement.
After marrying and living in Decatur, Mrs. Tucker and her two sons, Larry and Danny, moved to Gwinnett County in the mid-1960s when the boys approached high school age.
“She was a great mother,” said Larry Tucker of Atlanta, who said the children didn’t have much contact with their father. “She was always there. She was always at our ball games and school functions and encouraged outside school activities."
Dogs, cats, ducks, horses and many other animals had always been a part of family life, but after retiring from Emory Mrs. Tucker's passion became the Welsh corgi.
“She bought my brother a corgi in the ‘70s then started raising them from there,” Mr. Tucker said.By some estimates, the Pembroke Welsh Corgi first arrived in Wales in 1107 AD thanks to Flemish weavers, but the Cardigan had been around since 1200 BC, thanks to the Celts.
“She just liked the breed, and I think she loved the social nature of the kennel clubs," he said. His mother regularly edited the Lawrenceville Kennel Club’s newsletter.
Mrs. Tucker competed around the country with many champion corgis. “She probably raised a couple of kennels’ worth,” her son said. “She sold puppies from champion dogs, and some of those dogs went on to become champions.”
Her favorite "Cardis" were Lily and Joe, her “children with tails.”
Danny Tucker of Atlanta recalled the Tuesday before his mother’s death when Lily and Joe were brought to Mrs. Tucker’s bedside for a final reunion at Embracing Hospice in Snellville.
“This was really the only day we saw her conscious during the last week of hospice, and she was smiling at us a little bit, but when the dogs came in, I mean, she really smiled," Mr. Tucker said. "Even though she’d been aware that my brother and I and other family were there, she didn’t say our names, but when the dogs came in she said their names. It was really difficult for her to get more than a few words out, but she made an effort to talk to the dogs.”
One at a time, Lily and Joe were taken in. When it was his turn, Joe curled up to the one who'd nurtured him and both dozed off.
Mrs. Tucker was preceded in death by a sister, Betty Sue Hanner.
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