- Date Of Birth: May 8, 1916
- Date Of Death: August 16, 2016
- State: Idaho
Harriett Ialene Lowry Kerr was born on May 8, 1916 in Wichita, Kansas, the third daughter of Nicholas John Camp and Lora Crump Camp. She passed away at the age of 100 on August 16, 2016.
Ialene married Darwin Phillip Lowry in Wichita, Kansas, on November 20, 1937. They had four children, Darwin Phillip Lowry, Jr., Carol Ann Tigges, John Douglas Lowry, and Kathryn Jane Zaiss. Darwin died June 9, 1977 in an airplane crash. She married Glenn Walter Kerr on December 26, 1981 and added three more children to her life, Alice Gilbert, Jean E. Kerr, and Bill W. Kerr. Glenn died February 17, 2009.
Ialene, as she is known to all her friends and family, graduated from Wichita North High School two weeks after her 17th birthday, having skipped two grades. She was on the swim team and received Sharpshooter Awards from the NRA. Because it was the middle of the Great Depression Ialene attended business school instead of college. After graduating she was hired to teach Commercial Business Law.
Ialene was an active person all of her life. She traveled to and toured more than 20 different nations on five continents. She never made it to Australia and she would never have gone to cold, cold Antarctica. While Ialene was married to Darwin, they had one adventure after another. They rafted the wild rivers of the West including the Colorado and the Green Rivers during the 1960’s and 1970’s when there was little regulation of traffic on the rivers; they traveled to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands on a “tramp” steamer; they climbed up to Machu Picchu when there were no professional guides to lead the way; they ended up being detained in Brazil because they had entered into the country on a back road and didn’t have the proper stamps in their passports; they drove though the major game preserves in southern Africa; they even played golf in Saudi Arabia; and they finished their adventures with a barefoot sailing cruise in the Caribbean.
She was active in the Girl Scouts, first as a leader of a local troop and then as a member of the regional council. Ialene was active in the PTA serving both in a local capacity and as president of the Kansas PTA. She loved playing games, (especially bridge), jigsaw and crossword puzzles. There was always time for another game of gin rummy or dominos which she almost always won. Ialene taught her children that the fun was in the playing and not in the winning. She always had a book in the car to read out loud during long road trips to the four children trapped in the back seat.
Ialene moved with Glenn to the Roswell area of Parma, Idaho at the age of 80 to live next door to her daughter, and she continued to live in her own home until the age of 99. At that time she moved to the Parma Assisted Living.
She was preceded into death by her parents, her husbands, Darwin and Glenn, her two sisters Alberta Mae Camp Woltz and Georgia Mae Barnhart, her nephew Robert Barnhart, and her granddaughter, Rachel Tigges.
Ialene is survived by her son, Darwin Phillip and his wife, Valarie Lapinski-Lowry; her daughter, Carol Ann; her son, John and his wife, Carol Sue; her daughter, Kathryn; her two stepdaughters, Alice and Jean; her stepson, William; eight grandchildren; great-grandchildren; and her special friend, Barbara Sharp.
The family wishes to thank the ladies who came for lunch and a domino game every day while Ialene was still living in her own home, and the staff of the Parma Assisted Living who loved and cared for her so faithfully.
