Jeannette Ford Sternberg Henkes, loving wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and 52-year resident of Pacific Palisades, passed away at home on April 6. She was 91. The daughter of John and Anna Ford, Jeannette was born on February 23, 1915 in Kansas City, Missouri. Her family moved to Des Moines in 1924 and she graduated from East High in 1933. She met Donald Sternberg in 1933 at Iowa State College in Ames, Iowa, where she was a member of Pi Beta Phi sorority. She moved to Los Angeles in 1936 and they married on May 28, 1938. Jeannette and Don were charter members of Westwood Hills Christian Church, a new church near UCLA. In 1950, they moved to Pacific Palisades with their three children, Steve, Kent and Christie. In July 1953, Don died and Jeannette moved to Santa Monica, where she lived until 1958. On February 23, 1958, she and J. H. “Judd” Henkes, Jr. were married at Westwood Hills Christian Church. That May, Jeannette and her family moved back to Pacific Palisades. Their combined household included Judd’s two children, Justus III and Denise Marie. Jeannette’s interests included a love for the outdoors and for UCLA athletics. She loved to fish, sometimes even “outfishing” Judd, who introduced her and all of the children to these hobbies. She also loved to travel and in her later years greatly enjoyed family reunions and visits with her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. Jeannette continued to live in their Palisades home until her death and also remained active in Westwood Hills Christian Church, Pi Beta Phi alumni, the Palisades Rotary Anns, P.E.O., Daughters of the American Revolution, and the Republican Women’s Club. Along with her husband, endowed scholarships were established in their names at UCLA for football and kidney research and at Pepperdine University for water polo and academic achievement. In addition to Donald Sternberg, Jeannette was preceded in death by her parents, her husband, Justus H. Henkes, Jr., who passed away in 2001, her sister, Catherine, her brother, John, and her daughter, Denise Marie Henkes Meyers. She is survived by her brother Charles R. Ford (wife Elaine) of Riverside; brother- in-law Howard Henkes (wife Petie) of Los Angeles; sons, Stephen F. Sternberg of Dallas, TX, Justus H. Henkes III of Santa Monica, and Kent H. Sternberg of Sacramento, CA; daughter Christie Henkes Fulton of Napa, CA; and their families, which include 11 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren, with the 14th due in May. A memorial celebration will be held at Westwood Hills Christian Church,10808 Le Conte Ave., on Friday, April 14 at 2 p.m. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations in memory of Jeannette Henkes be made to the Rotary Club of Pacific Palisades, attn.: Rotary Foundation Chair, P.0. Box 114, Pacific Palisades, CA 90272 or to a charity of one’s choice.
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