Kathryn Nova Duhrsen Jennett

Kathryn Nova Duhrsen Jennett, age 83, passed away peacefully with family by her side on September 24th, 2025, as a resident-patient at the Morningstar Assisted Living Facility in Rio Rancho, New Mexico.

Nova was born on January 27, 1942, in New Kensington, Pennsylvania. She grew up with her mother Martha in a shotgun row-house in Brackenridge, Pennsylvania, directly across the street from the Allegheny River, where she would often swim to the far bank and back over the objections of her mother, who insisted she never swim without a buddy. At home she was expected to help cook and learned from her mother to care for family above all else and that a good reputation was very valuable to uphold.

Nova’s ambition in high school, while working at a beauty parlor and the movie concession stand, was to become a teacher. She graduated from Allegheny College in 1963, majoring in history and belonging to the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority, in which she remained active throughout much of her life.

Nova’s graduation present was a 1963 trip to Colorado, where she met her first husband, Lowell Russell Duhrsen, while she was a waitress and he was a short-order cook at Mesa Verde National Park. They began dating that October when they returned to Denver, where Nova was mastering in library science at the University of Denver, and Lowell worked as a library administrator. After a brief courtship and engagement, they married in August, 1964 and remained together for 29 years until his death in 1993.

After their wedding, Nova and Lowell moved to Seattle, Washington, where Lowell was completing his own master’s degree in library science and Nova worked in the film department at the Seattle Public Library. Following Lowell’s service tour in Vietnam, the couple followed Lowell’s library job to Laramie, Wyoming, where Nova gave birth to her two children, Jeff (1969) and Heather (1970). After their brief stay in Iowa City, Iowa, Nova and Lowell moved to Las Cruces, New Mexico in 1976, where she spent the remaining 49 years of her life.

In Las Cruces, Nova worked first as a librarian at Alameda Junior High School and then at Onate High School, retiring from the Las Cruces Public School District in the mid 1990’s. Years later, former students would approach her in restaurants and grocery stores and thank her for letting them be in the library before and after school because that was a safe space. While working full-time, she completed her accounting degree and passed the exam to become a Certified Public Accountant, which she maintained in retirement. She also served on the community board of Memorial Medical Center. Her children recall her leaving for work at 7AM each morning, driving them to guitar lessons as soon as she got home, and then delivering them to and picking them up from swim and tennis practice, often not returning home until after 8PM. Nevertheless, her biscuits, apple pies, and chocolate cakes were always at the ready, and those recipes are one of her enduring legacies.

In retirement, Nova golfed several times each week, decorated cakes with gusto, cultivated her long-standing book club with dear friends and neighbors, and traveled often to see her children and grandchildren. She remained active in Saint James Episcopal Church, where she met her second husband, Rusty Jennett, whom she married in February 2002. With Rusty, she sailed the Caribbean and reveled in his cooking: grilled ribeye steaks and tilapia, homemade pico de gallo, and a hot, fresh breakfast every morning. She spent the remaining years of her life maintaining their home and yard and caring for their rotating menagerie of dog children.

Friends and family recall that Nova was a fierce conservative, but as a woman of deep Christian faith, she always treated those of all political persuasions with kindness, respect, and dignity. She was 5 feet tall in stature, but in many ways, she was a giant for her community, her friends, and her family.

Nova was preceded in death by her mother, Martha Brown, and her first husband, Lowell Russell Duhrsen (1993). She is survived by her son, Jeffrey Duhrsen of Anchorage, AK; her daughter, Heather Gabaldon and her son-in-law, Robert Gabaldon, of Rio Rancho, NM; her grandchildren Sean Gabaldon and his wife Haley, of Rio Rancho, NM, Ashley Gabaldon, of Atlanta, GA, Vanessa Duhrsen, of Burlington, VT, and Ben Duhrsen and Meredith Duhrsen, of Anchorage, AK; as well as her second husband of 23 years, Rusty Jennett, of Las Cruces, NM, and his children and grandchildren.

A memorial service is scheduled for Saturday, November 22nd at 10:00 AM at San Jose de Picacho Mission Catholic Church in Las Cruces, NM. Arrangements are being handled by Daniels Family Funeral Home, (https://www.danielsfuneral.com) where sentiments and memories can be directed.