Jennings, June 1915-1997
JENNINGS, KERN, SHOEMAKER
Posted By: Linda Ziemann, volunteer (email)
Date: 4/27/2009 at 18:56:45
FUNERAL THURSDAY AT FIRST BAPTIST
June Jennings, 82, of LeMars, died unexpectedly Monday, June 30, 1997, at Floyd Valley Hospital in LeMars.
Mary June Kern was born June 24, 1915 to William C. and Mary Ellen (Shoemaker) Kern at home on Clark Street (now Second Avenue Northwest) in LeMars. Her maternal grandparents had pioneered in Sioux County and her paternal grandparents had come to LeMars from Illinois.
She was baptized in the First Baptist Church, then conveniently located four blocks from her home, in December 1926.
She graduated from LeMars Central High School in 1933 and met her future husband, George Jennings, a motorcycle rider. After that she was employed as a secretary for a year at the Plymouth County Credit Bureau. On Jan. 1, 1936, she married George Jennings. George referred to her as wife, friend, and compliment to his professional activities.
The Jennings were actively involved in church activities at First Baptist until leaving in the fall of 1939 to attend Northwestern Bible and Missionary Training School, Minneapolis, Minn. At the time she had also been doing bookkeeping work for Gus Pech Foundry.
The couple did not return to live in LeMars for 43 years. Mrs. Jennings graduated from Northwestern in 1943. She was employed as a church secretary in Minneapolis for 25 years and spent a dozen years as a professional secretary at both Wheaton College and Geneva College where her husband had been teaching. George’s studies took the couple to Tehran, Iran, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Irian Jaya and elsewhere around the world and across the country. Their travels included desert villages from the Middle East to the American Southwest.
The couple decided to retire in 1982 and chose to return to LeMars.
She was actively involved in the Christian Women’s Club, the Floyd Valley Hospital Auxiliary and the LeMars Senior Citizens. She was an active member of the First Baptist Church in LeMars.
Survivors include her husband, George; two sisters, Helen Kale of Punta Gorda, Fla, and Lois Tindall of LeMars; and several nieces and nephews.
She was preceded in death by her parents.
Funeral services will be at 10 a.m. Thursday at First Baptist Church in LeMars with the Rev. Harold Salem and the Rev. Gordon Rhodes officiating. Burial will be in Memorial Cemetery, LeMars. Visitation will be after 2 p.m. today (Wednesday) with a prayer service at 7 p.m. at the Mauer-Johnson Funeral Home in LeMars.
~Source: The LeMars Daily Sentinel, July 1997
Tombstone Photo
Plymouth Obituaries maintained by Linda Ziemann.
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