Memorial services for Doris “Jean” Kitchen, 80, Lawrence, will be held from 2-5 p.m. on Wednesday, December 29, 2010 at Pioneer Ridge Retirement Community, 4851 Harvard Drive, in Lawrence, KS. She died December 27, 2010 at Pioneer Ridge surrounded by her family.
She was born May 29, 1930 in Smith Center, KS the daughter of Ralph Warren and Mamie (Wurster) Barry.
Jean attended Logan Elementary School in Smith Center, KS. She was valedictorian of Smith County in 1944. She then graduated from Hays High in 1948. In 1950 she received her teaching certificate.
She married Bill Kitchen on September 1, 1951 at the First Presbyterian Church in Smith Center, KS.
Jean taught grade school in Brewster and Erie, Kansas. She was a beloved piano teacher and taught numerous students in Hutchinson, KS from 1965-1978, and then in Manhattan, Kansas from 1979-2002. She was a disciplined pianist and was on a continuous quest for self-improvement. She was an avid journal writer, as well as the author of a series of children’s stories about her youth in Smith Center. These can be accessed at jeankitchen.blogspot.com. She also devoted herself to quilting, crossword puzzles, art, gardening, and being a wonderful mother to her five children.
Jean was a member of the League of Women Voters, Environmental Action of Reno County, the Democratic Party, and was a cornerstone of the Unitarian Universalist Church in Hutchinson.
Survivors include her husband, Bill of Lawrence; her five children, Colleen Dick of Corvallis, OR; Kirk Kitchen of Ypsilanti, MI; Todd Kitchen of Lawrence, KS; Jocelyn Kitchen of Lawrence, KS; Sara Kitchen of Austin, Texas; one sister, Mary Louise Stepp of Smith Center, KS; eight grandchildren, Jean Dick, Connor Dick, Eamon Dick, and Ellie Dick of Corvallis, OR; Mulligan Greenwell, Ida Greenwell, Keegan Matheis and Eleanor Matheis of Lawrence, KS, and numerous nieces and nephews.
The family suggests memorial donations to the Konza Prairie Foundation and may be sent in care of the Warren-McElwain Mortuary.
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