Mary Jean Randolph Montgomery was born September 8^th, 1930 in Kansas City, Missouri, the daughter of Clarence Albert Randolph and AnnaBelle Bagby Randolph. She passed away January 28^th at the Kansas City Hospice House, surrounded by her loving family.

 

Her memorial service will be held on Thursday, February 4^th at 2:00 PM at the Village Presbyterian Church, 6641 Mission Road, Prairie Village, Kansas.

 

Mary Jean attended the William Rockhill Nelson Elementary School, making lifelong friends there and in a series of schools she loved: Border Star, Southwest High School, Monticello College for Women in Alton, Illinois, and Missouri University, where she majored in Primary Education and was a member of the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority. At Southwest High School she was known as a dancer in the “Redskin Rebels” talent shows. She studied ballet at the Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Dance for several years and continued her studies at the American Academy of Ballet Theatre in New York City.

 

At the age of eight, Mary Jean learned that she had diabetes. Guided at first by her loving mother, she became so disciplined in managing her care that that her endocrinologist declared her, at 71, to be a “poster child” in showing how to stave off the effects of this insidious disease. Mary Jean received warm and empathetic care from many wonderful doctors over her lifetime. Our family extends its deepest appreciation to Dr. Marie Leighton Griffin of St. Luke's South in Kansas City for her compassion and her consummate professionalism over the past difficult years.

 

In 1950 while at MU, she met her future husband, Robert Mitchel Montgomery of Maryville, Missouri, and they were married on February 24^th, 1951, at St. Andrews Episcopal Church in Kansas City. Mary Jean and Bob were members of the Village Presbyterian Church and among the founding couples of the Midnighters Dance club. They raised three children as Bob's Home Furnishings career took them from Kansas City to Denver and on to New York City. Mary Jean and Bob enjoyed many trips to Europe, Hawaii, and the Caribbean islands. After living in Livingston, New Jersey, for 40 years, upon retirement they gladly returned to the Kansas City area, settling in Leawood and reuniting with friends from childhood, high school, and college days.

 

During their 40 years in Livingston, Mary Jean was an amazing mother to her three children, and was also a sought-after substitute teacher in the local primary schools. She served as the corresponding secretary for the West Essex, NJ, chapter of the Kappa Kappa Gamma Alumni Association. She took an active role as member and Deacon in the Presbyterian Church of Livingston, NJ.

 

Mary Jean was preceded in death by her parents AnnaBelle and Albert Randolph, and her two step-brothers Warren and Donald Randolph. She is survived by her husband Robert, of the home; her son Mark Randolph Montgomery, his wife Anne C. Kubisch, and their children Marina and Nicholas, of New York City; daughter Suzanne Montgomery McGrath and her children Brian and Jacqueline, of Frisco, Texas; and daughter Julia Elizabeth Reede, husband Jon, and their children Madeleine and Sean, of Lake Sherwood, California.

 

The family requests that in lieu of flowers, donations in the name of Mary Jean Montgomery be made to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, 920 Main Street, Suite 280, Kansas City, Missouri 64105.