Jean K. Kearney

KEARNEY JEAN KEARSLEY KEARNEY Jean Kearsley Kearney, 91, a lifelong Democrat and patron of the arts who served as a volunteer docent for the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the National Archives and the Kennedy Center, died peacefully on January 13, 2011 of lung cancer. Ms. Kearney died in her apartment at the Watergate where she continued to entertain friends up until the final days of her life. Ms. Kearney had lived at the Watergate since 1967. Born in Baltimore, Maryland, on September 22, 1919, to Kearsley and Agnes Kearney, Ms. Kearney grew up in Riderwood in Baltimore County and graduated from Towson High School. In one of her first jobs after high school, she commuted from Baltimore to Washington to work for Maryland Congressman William P. Cole, Jr., but soon after the United States declared war on Japan in December 1941, she left Capitol Hill to work for the Petroleum Administration, a war agency, and began living in Washington full-time. Her first address in D.C. was the Scotts Hotel, at 2131 O. Street, N.W., a popular boarding house for single working women involved in the war effort. After World War II, Ms. Kearney worked for the Democratic National Committee and had a front row seat to one of the most remarkable presidential comebacks in modern political history. In September 1948, serving as an assistant to the DNC, Ms. Kearney provided staff support for President Truman's Whistle Stop Tour during which the president campaigned by train across country in his successful effort to defeat the heavily favored Republican candidate, Thomas Dewey. Ms. Kearney continued to be a strong supporter of Democratic candidates and causes throughout the rest of her life. In the late 1960s, Ms. Kearney retired, moved into the Watergate and devoted the next four decades pursuing her interests in art, architecture, ballet, drama, literature, biography and American history. Besides volunteering for 40 years as a docent, which enabled her to give tours and share her knowledge of - and enthusiasm for - some of the most important art on display in Washington, Ms. Kearney was a voracious reader who turned to listening to two or more books on tape each week when her eyesight failed. Ms. Kearney has no immediate surviving family members, but leaves many devoted friends. Her ashes will be interred at St. John's Catholic Church in Baltimore County where her parents are buried. A gathering to celebrate her life is being planned. Ms. Kearney has no immediate surviving family members, but leaves many devoted friends. Her ashes will be interred at St. John's Catholic Church in Baltimore County where her parents are buried. A gathering to celebrate her life is being planned.