Jean Marie Meyer
Jean Marie Meyer passed away on Friday, October 27, at Evergreen Hospital in Kirkland, Washington.
Jean was a devoted wife to our father and a loving mother to us. She cherished her role as a homemaker and mother. She made our home a secure and comfortable haven. Our family could often be found crowded around the kitchen table, laughing and talking.
Jean was born on May 31, 1933 in New York, New York. She grew up in Queens, New York, in a household that included her father, William Bardon, her mother, Brigid Bardon (nee Luby), and her brother, James.
As a child, Jean enjoyed Irish step dancing. She performed in local church and school fairs. On one occasion, she danced with other girls in a program in the very early days of TV. Her mother sewed beautiful traditional dresses for these dances. The loss of her mother when Jean was only 13 left her with a lifelong sorrow, though she graciously accepted the care offered by her Aunt Mary, whom we knew as Mamo.
Jean went on to attend Dominican Commercial High School. Upon graduation, she began working as a secretary in New York City, where she landed a job in the typing pool of the Royal Typewriter Company.
She often told us of noticing a certain red-haired boy mowing lawns at a local apartment house and how funny it was to look back at that time, never knowing that one day she would marry him. Jean and Rudolph Charles Meyer wed in 1955. Their early years were spent in Ohio, but they returned to New York to make their home on Long Island. They lived there until moving to Washington State in the late 1990s.
As a wife, Jean steadfastly supported our dad as he pursued his career as an
Rudy and Jean
aerospace engineer. She could make him laugh just by batting her eyes or imitating his quirks and habits for the family. As a daughter, Jean doted on her father and stepmother. As a mother, Jean kept us four kids scrubbed and well fed and also encouraged our interests. She applied Band-aids to our knees, laid a cool hand on our feverish foreheads when we were sick, and listened to us as we poured out our stories about school, friendships, fallings-out, hopes, and dreams.
Jean had a creative flair and a knack for decorating. She turned our house into a Christmas wonderland every December and filled our stockings with surprises; at Easter, she crafted beautiful Easter baskets bursting with trinkets that she’d squirreled away over the span of a year for just this purpose.
Dollhouses enchanted her, but putting on puppet plays really delighted her. She
Jean in Hawaii
helped us stage puppet shows when we were little. When she moved to the west coast, Jean revived the fun she’d had with puppets and put on puppet shows for her local women’s group.
Jean joins Rudy, her husband of 55 years, in the beyond and is survived by son James Rudolph Meyer (Janet); daughter Christina Maria Wilsdon (Anthony); son William Charles Meyer, and daughter Jennifer Brigid Husson (John); and six grandchildren: Sophie, Rick, Haley, Ryan, Austin, and Dean.
In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts may be made to The Smile Train, PO Box 96231, Washington, DC 20090-6231, or online at www.smiletrain.org.
Jean was a funny, feisty, kind, and loving woman. She will be deeply, sorely missed by us all. “Until we meet again, may God hold you in the palm of His hand.”