Eileen Clare Berger Kinney

Eileen was born on October 2, 1923, in St. Paul, Minnesota, to Edwin and Minerva Berger, and was younger sister to Lois. Although just a child during the Great Depression, she remembered the tension in their household as her fathers business was forced to close, bringing them perilously close to losing their home and then last-minute salvation when her father was able to secure the most rare commodity of that time-a good, s job at which he was able to work until retirement.While Eileen and sister Lois did not make up a large family, they grew up surrounded by close-knit aunts, uncles and cousins. Minnesota is known as the land of 10,000 lakes, and the Berger family picnicked and camped at many of them. Eileen very fondly remembered a happy childhood with summer gatherings at her grandparents cabin at Turtle Lake, and most of all their jolly celebrations at Christmas, with her Aunt Edna manning the kitchen stove with a Pomeranian always tucked under one arm. In the frigid Minnesota winters, the young ignored the cold and sledded and ice-skated.Eileen graduated from Central High School in St. Paul in 1941, after which she studied Nursing at the University of Minnesota. In 1944, she met Frank Kinney, Jr., an Army Air Force recruit on leave from a training camp in the area, and the two had a typical World War II whirlwind romance, becoming engaged just prior to his shipping out for England. She described his proposal as very romantic, down on one knee on a bridge overlooking the Mississippi River; and she received her engagement ring by mail shortly after his departure. They married after the war, in 1945, at St. Pauls Reformation Lutheran Church, in which Eileen had been baptized and confirmed. The following year, they began their family with the arrival of baby Sue.In 1950, Eileen was faced with moving west to Tacoma, Washington, where Franks employer had transferred him. It was a difficult adjustment to leave the city where she had lived all her life, her family, friends, and everything she knew, to venture where she knew no one. Still, with new challenges, there were new opportunities: she learned to drive, gaining an independence she had never known. She and Frank made long-term couples-friends, and as the family expanded to two with son Stephen in 1951 and then three with daughter Barbara in 1955, they enjoyed boisterous multi-family camping trips. As the expression goes, Eileen managed to bloom where she was planted.As the children grew older, Eileen developed one overriding ambition as a mother: to provide a college education for the children, and to be certain that each one persevered until they had their degrees in hand. Frank supported her in this goal, and it was achieved; and this was the accomplishment of which she was most proud in her life. No mother ever had better-looking, smarter or more talented kids and grandkids than those Eileen was proud to call her own.Always active, in her fifties Eileen took up golf with Frank and learned to ski with a group known as The Crazy Ladies. As a grandmother, she became an indispensable extra parent to Sues sons, Rod and Craig Britten-and again, years later, to Barbaras son, Jake Derry. Sadly, she and Frank grew apart and divorced an agonizing crisis in her life but her struggle to overcome it forged a stronger Eileen with an identity of her own instead of that of somebodys wife.Amiable and social, she loved to be active and on-the-go, and was able to enjoy a generous period of golden years, contentedly independent in her townhouse in the Juanita/Kirkland area, where she lived for 28 years, and zipping around in her little red car with the spoiler on the back. While shy of remarriage, she danced her way into the heart of Joe Cullen, who became her devoted companion until his death after 17 years enjoying golf, trips and cruises, movies, dining and dancing. After the loss of Joe, she was a bit surprised to meet Gerhard Mueller, who became her attentive escort for the last two years of his life.In her later years, she mourned the loss of her drivers license and eventually her ability to live independently. When her family suggested that she needed care, she scoffed that she was ready to go any time the Lord takes me. But the Lord took His time, and Eileen endured a long period of decline. She passed away peacefully on February 26, 2016, at the age of 92.Eileen is survived by daughters Susanne (Donald) Weaver and Barbara (Bill) Derry, and son Stephen (Clair) Kinney, as well as grandsons Rod and Craig Britten and granddaughters Stephanie and Katie Kinney; and five great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her grandson, Jacob Derry.The family would like to express its appreciation and gratitude to the devoted caregivers at mso-font-kerning:1.0pt;Kind Heart Adult Family Home in Edmonds Washington, and particularly to Myrna, who developed such a loving, caring friendship with Eileen, which meant so much to her in her time there.