Jennie KEITH

KEITH, SHERWOOD, WEST

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 2/15/2016 at 17:31:54

June 17, 1872 --- October 1, 1912

Austin [Minnesota] was shocked Tuesday evening by the startling news of the sudden death of Miss Jennie Keith. After a particularly active day, in the midst of busy turmoil of life, she had gone to the home of Mrs. Belle Sherwood on Greenwich street for supper. After the meal was over the family sat talking, laughing and reading in the most cheerful spirits. Mrs. West who had dropped in for a moment's chat was among the number. The latter was reading a newspaper article when Miss Keith reached her hand as if to touch the paper or stay the reading. Her head dropped forward and in a moment she was dead. Dr. Allen was called and was on the spot within five minutes but Miss Keith was dead when he reached her. Death was due to a blood clot in the head and was instantaneous. She was not troubled with heart disease and the same thing might happen to any one in most vigorous health. There was nothing that could have been done to save the life that went so quickly.

Miss Keith was one of the best known women in Austin. Four years ago last August she came to our city from Goldfield, Iowa and bought the Register equipment and on August 21, 1908, started the publication of the Mower County Republican, which paper she has since edited. Her newspaper work brought her in contact with a large number of people in Austin and Mower county. She was gifted as a public speaker and was much in demand in this capacity where her ready wit and originality of thought and manner made her a popular and good to hear. She once entered into life of our city, became interested in it's every industry and line of work. She felt that there was an opening for a weekly paper and her scope of effort took in the entire country. In her newspaper, as in her speaking, she displayed an originality of thought and expression, a quick grasp of a situation and insight into politics and business which made her publication read and valued. Possessed of a humor which was infectious and never failed she was a cheerful companion and lacked not for friends or a following. She was possessed of a strong personality, unconventional and fearless in speech and manner. Physically she was strong and virile, capable of much endurance and with almost unlimited capacity for work. Women envied her, her health and strength more than her mental force. None in our city seemed farther from death than she, as she drove her machine Tuesday or went about the routine of her business. She was a member of the Methodist Church in Austin though affiliated with the Presbyterian Church before coming here. Miss Keith had a bible class of seventeen members in the Methodist Sunday School. She was a member of the Library Board, the Floral and Era Clubs and one of Y.W.C.A. board. She took an interest in Schools, Church and Sunday School work politics, agriculture business and literature. She was a keen critic of music and authors and was free from much that is petty in woman's nature.

She leaves an aged mother, frail in health, and a large family of brothers and sisters to whom her loss will be immeasurable. Her brother Paul from Adams arrived Tuesday evening and her sister Eva from Goldfield, Iowa, this morning. Services will be held at the home of Mrs. Belle Sherwood this evening at 8 o'clock, Rev. C.W. Holmes of the Episcopal Church officiating and the body taken on the midnight train to her old home in Iowa for burial [Glenwood Cemetery - Goldfield]. Following are the pall bearers: O.J. Simmons, Dr. G.M.F. Rogers, Roy Holmes, Bert Sherwood, Dr. C.F. Lewis, J.H. Anderson. Music will be furnished by a quartet under the direction of J.L. Mitchell with Mrs. P.D. Beaulieu and Miss Ette Robertson and Roy Furtney assisting Mr. Mitchell. Lucy Thomas Rovman, pianist.

While her sudden death has been a severe shock to her friends, those who knew her best realize that she would have wished it so when her summons came. To an intimate friends she often said that Tennyson's "Crossing The Bar" was her favorite poem and who could doubt who knew her that she answered "the one clear call" gladly.