Jeanette H. Kleinhenz

Jeanette H. Kleinhenz (nee Stahurski) peacefully passed away on December 18, 2021. Preceding her in death were her parents John Stahurski and Eleanor Stahurski (nee Zielinkski) and her beloved husband, Paul A. Kleinhenz. Jeanette is survived by her siblings - John Stahurski and Donna E. Hawley (nee Stahurski), her two children - Andrea A. Kleinhenz and (Paul) Craig Kleinhenz, grandchildren - Grace Emma Kleinhenz and Benjamin Jozef Kleinhenz along with numerous nieces and nephews.

Jeanette always had a positive outlook and had a quick smile. As a young girl and teenager, her thick head of auburn hair was the envy of many girls and turned many boys’ heads. Called the “Crazy Genius” by her friend, Marge, she was the editor of her school newspaper, the top history student (her name was engraved on the history cup) and valedictorian of her graduating class. At the time, the pragmatist in her told her to become a stenographer but her heart wanted her to work with dogs. This latter interest was most likely initiated by her father, a cook at Clark’s Restaurant, who would bring home stray dogs for her to care for. Unfortunately, several of these dogs would later mysteriously disappear.

As a young girl she was sent to live with her Polish grandmother for an extended length of time while her brother, John, suffered through scarlet fever. Since her grandmother spoke little English, Jeanette was able to hone her ability to understand the Polish language. She also, picked up some other skills like cards and craps, two pastimes earnestly pursued by her grandmother.

After graduation Jeanette worked for Penton Publishing where she could use her skills in short-hand. She and her friends loved to eat so during their lunch breaks they would go on food adventures eating their way through the downtown restaurants starting with the A’s. Not too sure how far they got, but they most likely tried valiantly to finish off the Z’s. One time they went further afield to another type of adventure, a dude ranch - a short- lived experiment. The lunches proved more enjoyable for these city girls.

Jeanette and Paul met at an Our Lady of Good Counsel event. When they began dating Paul would hop on a bus to pick up Jeanette at her parent’s home. At times they were accompanied on their dates to the zoo with Jeanette’s young sister, Donna. Jeanette and Paul also would get dressed up and kick up their heels at the Aragon Ballroom. Jeanette and Paul were wed on May 26, 1951. Early in their marriage they moved to Poughkeepsie, NY to further Paul’s career at IBM. It was there that a nightclub owner offered Jeanette a job as the in-house pianist.

A few years later they purchased their first home - a small concrete block affair nestled amongst an acre and a half of woods on Wallings Rd in the wilds of North Royalton. This heavily wooded area was a haven for lots of critters, whose corpses unfortunately landed on their doorstep, compliments of their energetic beagle named Pepper. Pepper once even retrieved a bag of groceries from their neighbors and rumor has it some clothes from their neighbor’s clothes line. This seemingly idyllic setting proved to be a rather desolate existence for Jeanette. With her husband out of town for frequent work forays, and without a driver’s license of her own, she was unable to escape the oil explosions and frequent visitations by snakes in the basement rafters.

They moved to their next and last home in June of 1958. This home was in a newly created development in Parma. Perhaps the feature in the house that put the biggest smile on Jeanette’s face was the furnace - it was gas and not oil! It was here that Jeanette honed her cooking and baking skills much to the delight of her family and friends. Every Saturday morning for decades she would bake a multitude of delectable treats such as lemon or rum cakes, cherry or blueberry squares and on rare occasions Danish pastry. Every Sunday she prepared sumptuous lunches featuring roasts of every variety, vegetables, potatoes and her previous day’s baked creation. Her love of food was passed along to her children. Jeanette allowed them at an early age to experiment with different food combinations including dunking salami into HI-C fruit drinks - what a treat!

During the 60 plus years that they lived in the house Jeanette became friends with many of their neighbors -. We think that they liked Jeanette’s quirky nature, positive attitude and friendly, peace-loving demeanor. One of Jeanette’s desires over the years was to own a goat and ride around the neighborhood in a foot-powered scooter. Well her dreams came through on her 60th birthday - she got a scooter! Unfortunately, by then she no longer wanted to ride it, but she did enjoy looking at it!

As Jeanette grew older she dealt with her various aches, pains and headaches with grace and stoicism. When she was in her 80’s she often would quip that being this age wasn’t for wimps. When Paul died in May 2016 at the age of 90 (one day before their 65th wedding anniversary) after living his last 15 years with Alzheimer’s disease Jeanette began showing signs of dementia. In reality, she must have been exhibiting signs before this - she just did a good job of disguising them as we were more focused on Paul’s declining health to notice. As her dementia progressed her body began to fail. Two rounds of hospitalizations and rehab stints in 2019 weakened her and during the spring of 2020 she contracted Covid which caused neuromuscular damage that further weakened her.

In August 2020, the adult assisted living home she was living in closed necessitating a move to a similar facility nearby. Due to medical issues she became bed ridden and progressively weaker. However, throughout it all she demonstrated a calm, inner strength along with a positive spirit. She was quite a wife, mother, daughter, sister, aunt, cousin and friend to many. Her eclecticism, calmness, laughter, smile and baked goods will be missed by all who knew and loved her.

Due to the pandemic the family will have a private funeral mass. A celebration of her life will be planned for later in 2022. In lieu of flowers the family asks that you donate to an organization devoted to treating and finding a cure for dementia.