Mary Kerner, 89

Mary C. Kerner passed away in the early morning hours of Friday, December 28, 2012, at her residence in Fairbanks. She was 89 years old.

Mary was born Mary Catherine Smith on January 19, 1923 in South Pittsburg, Tennessee. Her parents were Charles Jefferson Smith and Amanda Birdwell Smith. Mary was one of seven children and grew up in Bloomington, Illinois, during the Great Depression.

There, she was a telephone operator and eventually a nurse. It was in Bloomington she met her husband Stephen Simon Kerner. They married in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on February 6, 1943. In 1945, after Stephen was discharged from the army at the end of World War II, the couple drove up the Alaska-Canadian highway to Fairbanks, Alaska, with an army truck and trailer, at times crossing rivers with washed out bridges on rafts that they built with other travelers.

In Fairbanks they homesteaded on what is now Grenac Road, originally the driveway they built to get to their land where they grew cabbage and potatoes.

Mary with Stephen raised their children, Brigid, Stephen A., David and Guy.

She attended the University of Alaska Fairbanks where she earned her bachelors in education and eventually a masters of education.

Mary taught elementary school, primarily fourth grade, for 20 years on Fort Wainwright in Fairbanks, Alaska.

Mary was her own woman: elegant, intelligent, independent and determined. From her childhood growing up during the Great Depression, through college and during her senior years, Mary had a love of learning and going to school that lasted her entire life. She loved music, singing, painting, and more than anything else, her children.

Mary is survived by her husband, Stephen S. Kerner, her three sons Stephen A. Kerner, David T. Kerner, Guy M. Kerner, her daughter-in-law Marie Kerner, her son-in-law Robert Hubof, two grandchildren, eight great grandchildren and one great great grandchild. She is loved and she is missed.

A mass will be offered for the repose of the soul of Mary Kerner by Father Jim Colb on Saturday, January 12, 2013 at 5:30 pm at St. Raphael Catholic Church located at 1125 Old Steese Highway, Fairbanks, Alaska. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made in Mary’s name to the University of Alaska Fairbanks Alumni Association, P.O. Box 750126, Fairbanks, AK 99775.

Arrangements are entrusted to Fairbanks Funeral Home. www.legacyalaska.com