Lillian May Kern

Lillian May Louise Lashine Wess Kern, known mostly commonly as "Pat" Wess, 98, was the daughter of Ruth Lashine and Philip Lashine of Baltimore, Maryland.
She was a sports fanatic, having won a bamboo ocean sport fishing rod in Ocean City, Maryland as a teenager. A lasting image of my mother casting into the surf in Ocean City will remain with me. In her late 90s, she knew as much about sports as anyone in her family.
Her mother, Ruth, was a fiercely independent person, attending Mass every day and building B-25 bombers for Glen L. Martin. She is descended from the Sanborn's of New England, for which a town is named in New Hampshire and the Patchs, New England ship captains. This independence and hard work carried Pat throughout her life, as was common of her generation that survived the Great Depression and World War II.
Pat sent her children, Bernard Patrick Wess, Jr. and the late Eric Christopher Wess to military school and they came home one day to find the TV in the trash. Their mother said there was nothing to watch but "junk." Once, at a Sunday Mass in Baltimore's Cathedral, in the middle of the Archbishop's sermon on the need for support of the Vietnam War, she, all 4' 11," marched down the main aisle, her high heels clicking on the marble on her way out the door, bringing silence to the cathedral. This fierce independence carries through to her great grandchildren.
She used her knowledge and focus to rise from being a teacher in the Baltimore Catholic School system to become the Chief Librarian of Baltimore City's 100 public schools after graduating from the College of Notre Dame and the School of Library Sciences at the University of Maryland.
She married the late Bernard P. Wess, Sr. after he returned from World War II and after his death in 1977, married a family friend, the late Frederick Kern, Sr. He had two children, Fred Sr. and his brother. After the death of Fred Kern, she moved to Ocean City, Maryland and built a house near Assawoman Bay in West Ocean City, in which she resided until her death.
She is survived by family in Ocean City, including Debby Wess who cared for her later in her life and her grandchildren and great grandchildren; also by her family in Needham Heights and Westborough, Massachusetts-the children and grandchildren of Bernard P. Wess, Jr.
It's been said parents don't want justice, they want peace and quiet. For the last 40 years of her life, she enjoyed living in her house watching sports from all over the world and asking only for peace and quiet. She has it now and thus her services will be private.