Gertrude B. Stern, Kansas’s oldest living resident, died April 11 at the age of 112.
She was born in 1910, in Sioux City, Iowa, before the invention of the modern radio and only several years after Wilbur Wright’s first flight. As a child, she watched WWI soldiers muster in a downtown city park and sold them water for a penny a cup. She moved to Kansas City around 1913. Her parents were tailors, emigrants from White Russia. The family made a good life in a new land.
Gertrude attended high school in Kansas City. She worked as a cashier, then milliner in downtown Kansas City. Her father’s tailor shop was at 19th & Main. She met her husband Morris at a progressive dinner party. They married in 1933, honeymooning in Estes Park, Colorado, staying at rustic Honeymoon Cabin at McCreery Ranch. She later told Morris that the next time they came to Estes, the place where they stay would have to have running water! She lived for 67 years in Countryside, now Mission.
The mother of three children, Neuman (now deceased), Philip of Allenspark, Colorado, and Jaclyn Beaulieu of Overland Park, Kansas.
She was a long time member of The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah. She sewed for many years at the Village Church in Prairie Village, and she volunteered for so many years at Red Cross that they ran out of awards to give her. She and Morris were avid Shriners with the Ararat Temple. Gertrude loved being a member of the Shrine’s Casbah Darlings.
When asked about her secret of the long and fulfilling life she led, she credited vitamins and the ability to release stress and focus on the positive, often reading Danielle Steel romance novels.
She was a marvelous mother, grandmother and great grandmother to her extended family. She’ll be remembered for her strength, courage, drive and independence.
In lieu of flowers, in her honor, participate in world peace!
Graveside services were held at Rose Hill Cemetery, Tuesday, April 12, 2022.
Online condolences for the family may be left at louismemorialchapel.com.
