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JEANNE MONTGOMERY KERSTEN

JEANNE MONTGOMERY KERSTEN

August 3, 1923-April 29, 2017

Jeanne Mont­gomery Kersten, be­loved wife of Dr. John R. Kersten of Ft. Dodge and mother of Kathy, Bob, Mon­ty, Carol, Teresa and Laur­ie Ker­sten. Her father was a colonel in the U.S. Army, and she grew up on army bases around the country, including Schofield Barracks in Hawaii in the 1930s. She met John in 1948 in Tokyo, Japan, where she served as an editor on the War Crimes Trials documents in the interpreter section of Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s headquarters. John was a doctor at Sugamo Prison, where he cared for Japanese prisoners of war.

They were married on Sept. 17, 1949, on Governor’s Island in New York City and moved to Ft. Dodge in 1952. There John joined his father, Dr. Ernest Kersten, and his brothers, Paul and Herb, at the newly opened Kersten Clinic.

Jeanne was active in many Ft. Dodge activities, including PEO. She founded the Ft. Dodge Cooperative Nursery School in 1954. After their children were raised, John and Jeanne spent a year in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where John was chief of medicine at King Khalid Eye Hospital. They traveled the world, retired to Florida, and then moved to Paradise Valley Estates in Fairfield, CA, to be near a number of their children.

Jeanne was an extraordinary woman–supremely loving, profoundly kind, with a sparkling wit and a remarkable sense of adventure. She was a light to all around her. She was deeply loved by her family and her many friends, and is survived by her six children, 19 grandchildren and 9 great-grandchildren.

Memorial tributes may be sent to the PVE Scholarship Fund, Paradise Valley Estates, 2600 Estates Dr., Fairfield, CA 94533, attn: Accounting Dept.