Businesswoman Jeanette Andersen, who lived a diverse bi-coastal life, died of lung cancer on October 29 at the NYU Medical Center in New York. She was 68. Born in Los Angeles, Jeanette moved with her family to Pacific Palisades in 1952. She graduated from University High and attended the University of Hawaii for a short time, while also studying stenography so that she could be a corporate secretary. Jeanette’s first position was at Dean Witter, working as the executive assistant for the CEO in Beverly Hills for 10 years. She then opened a successful interior landscaping business with a celebrity client base and appeared on the cover of the L.A. Times Home magazine in recognition of her ability to beautify interiors with plants and patio landscapes with unique designs. The New York Times later wrote about her efforts to plant flowers around all the tree pits on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, and people hired her to landscape their terraces. It was rumored she could talk to a sick plant and make it well. When visiting friends, she sprinkled wilting flowers, balanced bouquets and carried pruning scissors in her handbag. Moving to New York in the mid-1970s while maintaining a home in Pacific Palisades, Jeanette started her own company, the Andersen Group, an agency that recruited executive and personal assistants and even household managers for CEOs, socialites and entertainment celebrities. Working through referrals only, Jeanette pioneered the ascent’of the executive secretary in the corporate and financial worlds. Her company was well-known to most of New York’s CEOs, and some of her placements attained salaries in the $250,000 range, along with profit-sharing plans. Jeanette was respected for her discreet personality and her ability ‘to lock boardroom secrets’ in her heart. She instinctively understood the qualifications necessary for high-level assistants working for a powerful CEO, where both his business and private life could be jeopardized. Jeanette never exploited anyone, and was as gracious to her beginning secretarial candidates as she was to the ‘elite’ group. Many of her clients became close friends and she was an important part of their families. In 2002, Jeanette moved back to California but continued working with her East Coast clients from her home in the Highlands. She would travel as required. In recent years, she also worked for the real estate company Keller Williams in Brentwood. A world traveler, Jeanette had many friends in Europe and the Middle East. She won an international backgammon tournament in Monaco in the early ’70s and played for years in Los Angeles with many of the friends’she had in show business. Jeanette was gracious and kind to all who entered her life. An advocate for animals, she was never too busy to hug a shivering cat, even if its hair stuck to her designer suits. She took care of her family and answered her phone at all hours of the night to console friends who needed to talk. She was an inspiring woman whose vitality and love of life touched all who knew her. Jeanette was pre-deceased by her son, Stevie Berry. Survivors include her twin sister, Judy Andersen of Pacific Palisades; sisters Kathy Mellen of Barefoot Bay, Florida, and Susan Weston of Parump, Nevada; and her brother, Robert G. Andersen, also of Parump. In the weeks prior to Jeanette’s death, the love of her life, Kevin B. McGrath, was at her bedside day and night, caring for her until her final moments. Private services will be held November 20 at 11 a.m. at the home of Chris and Pam Conway in Pacific Palisades. Donations can be made in Jeanette’s memory on behalf of cancer research.
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