Jean P. Acker

Jenny Jean Pringle Acker was born on August 4, 1928, in San Francisco, California.  Jean was the second daughter born to Fred Albert Pringle and Beatrice Berkebile Pringle.  Her sister, Betty, was born on April 25, 1927, in San Francisco.  When Jean was two years old, the family moved back to Kansas City, Missouri, where her father worked as a carpenter.  She and her family were members of Covenant Presbyterian Church in Kansas City.  While she was growing up, the family made their home at 3129 Elmwood and 5729 Indiana Street in Kansas City.

Jean loved being outdoors.  In particular, she liked to swim and spent time at the Lake of the Ozarks cabin with her cousins in Noel, Missouri, and took diving lessons at the pool at the Continental Hotel in Kansas City.

She enjoyed all kinds of pets.  She continually brought home stray cats, kittens and dogs.  Her parents would let her keep some of them and the girls enjoyed dressing up the cats in doll clothes and pushing them in a baby carriage.

Jean learned to cook from a very early age and became proficient in all aspects of cooking, menu planning, and baking.  Her mother was a seamstress and taught her to sew, making skillfully and intricately tailored women's suits, coats and blouses.  She had a beautiful soprano voice and sang in her high school choir.

After attending grade and high schools in Kansas City, Missouri, she worked in the banking industry and then at Motor Radio Company where she met Ralph Edward Acker.  They married on February 26, 1949, and raised three children: Pamela Jean, Carolyn Ann and Steven Alan, in Prairie Village.

Jean was a wonderful mother and homemaker and all 3 children enjoyed cooking.  She sewed many of their clothes when the children were young and taught the girls to sew.  As a sidelight, she taught herself to drive a standard transmission car on the sparsely inhabited neighborhood streets.  When she wanted to learn to do something, she got the supplies or equipment necessary and just did it!  Steve was very much like that as a youngster too!

Jean had many of her father's carpentry talents and throughout her life enjoyed building projects such as pet cages and bookcases.  She also had many creative talents including playing the piano, using delicate paintbrushes for artwork, doing all types of crafts, and drawing the children's portraits on the large basement chalkboard.  Jean shared these talents with several Brownie and Girl Scout troops as well as playing the piano and teaching Sunday School at Asbury Methodist and Prairie Baptist Churches in Prairie Village.  The family also shared her love of animals and over the years took in birds, mice, gerbils, turtles, tortoises, garter snakes, insects, chickens, rabbits, cats and dogs.  She was also a pretty good warm up pitcher for Steve before his baseball games!

She and Ralph started their own business, Everseal Gasket and Stamping, Inc., in Kansas City, Kansas, in 1960.  For many years, Jean worked at home doing gasket production, processing and packaging.  After their divorce in 1966, Jean went to work as a teller and later as a manager for Kansas National Bank in Prairie Village.  She worked there for 23 years.  Jean always loved people and thrived in social and workplace atmospheres.  She never knew a stranger and kept in touch with several friends and co-workers she knew from those days at Kansas National Bank long after she left.

After her retirement in 1988 from Kansas National Bank, Jean lived in the Phoenix, Arizona, area for 3 years to be closer to Pam's family.  She then moved back to Shawnee and worked at the Mission State Bank for 5 years.  Carolyn and family relocated to the Chicago area in 1996 and Jean followed soon after and made her home in Naperville, Illinois, and later to an assisted living apartment in Batavia.  She lived in Illinois for many years and eventually followed Carolyn and Ed to Florida in 2014.

Steve was diagnosed with cancer in 1969 at the age of 11; he lost his battle later that same year.  After her girls finished high school, they went on to college and to work and began their own families.  Pam married John Ellsworth Kellogg in Agate, Colorado, in 1970.  They had two daughters, Kristin Michelle and Lauren Melissa.  Carolyn married Anthony Van Weaver in 1974 and had two daughters, Stephanie Marie and Jennifer Leigh and lived in Overland Park.  After her divorce, she married Edward Joseph Kaestner in 1981 and they had a daughter, Amy Elizabeth.

Jean always had a love for television and the entertainment industry.  Their first tv set was purchased in 1950.  The television the girls remember was housed in a large, blonde, wood-finished cabinet on legs.  She loved all kinds of television programming from game shows to movies.  The girls remember her staying up to watch late night television in those early years of Jack Paar and Johnny Carson while she was working on gasket production.  In later years, and in particular, after her retirement, she enjoyed watching movies at home and began quite a collection of tapes and DVDs.  She loaned a number to the apartment building management to play for the residents when she lived in Naperville.

Many of the talents and interests her children enjoy today are because Jean developed them, giving them opportunities to play musical instruments, do arts and crafts, perform in choirs, take part in teams, and take leadership roles in church and Girl Scout organizations.  She modeled for them what the roles of homemaker and mother were.

Jean had a love for the church and was raised by God-loving parents that attended and served in the church their entire lives.  We are assured that Jean is in Heaven today because she accepted Jesus Christ as her savior in 1986 while visiting her daughter's church in Arizona.

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Donations in Jean’s name may be made to:

Samaritan's Purse
PO Box 3000
Boone, NC 28607

A graveside service will take place at 11 AM on Tuesday, December 8th at Mt. Moriah Cemetery in Kansas City, MO.  If you would like to view the live stream of the service on Tuesday, please click here.