Jeanne L. Kyle

Jeanne L. Kyle passed away peacefully Friday morning, May 31, 2024 at her home in West Mount Airy, Philadelphia. She was the beloved wife of Michael C. Kyle. 

Jeanne was born on August 22, 1946 in Southwest Philadelphia to Helene Cecelia Schmitt and James Joseph McElroy. Early on, the family moved to Drexel Hill in Delaware County, in St. Andrews Parish. She graduated from Archbishop Prendergast where the nuns tried very hard to convince her to join the order. Instead, she attended Drexel University (Institute of Technology at that time) on a full scholarship as a National Merit Scholar in 1964. It was there that she met her future husband who came to Drexel in 1965. They were married while both were still in school on September 9, 1967. That made for a few years of scraping by on very little money.  Most Drexel students are in the co-operative education program. Jeanne was as well, spending her co-op periods at the National Security Agency between Baltimore and Washington, where she had top secret clearance and did considerable computer work. 

Jeanne graduated in 1968 as a mathematics major and became a book editor for W B Saunders medical publishers which provided some income. Mike graduated in 1970 and became a high school math teacher. From an apartment in Center City Philadelphia, they moved to West Mount Airy in 1971 and never lived anywhere else. As the years went on, Jeanne worked at computer programming and consulting. In the 1980s she started working at St Madeleine Sophie Church, her home parish, and found her real calling. The pastor was Monseigneur Michael J Flood. When he was assigned to St Luke’s parish in Glenside, Montgomery County, she continued at St Madeleine Sophie until he asked her to join him. She went and stayed there for 26 years. That was a major part of her life. She loved liturgy and was more knowledgeable than many priests. She loved educating those who wanted to join the church and also loved so many other aspects of her job. She retired finally in 2023 some months after having a stroke in September 2022. 

She loved her cats – Friday and Tycho are the latest and are lost without her. She had an abundance of plants and could revive almost any that needed a home. She was a voracious reader, usually reading 3 or 4 books at once. She loved playing games and doing puzzles and was a fierce, but polite, competitor, often the winner. She also felt that nothing should be wasted. She kept all sorts of things because they might have a use at some time. She said she wasn’t a pack rat, but that may have just been her opinion. 

She was the third of seven children. In age sequence, they are Marcia (widow of Frank O’Keefe), James (Linda Ciccarelli), Lynn (Steve Giordano), Michael (Suzanne Kleiser), Richard (Robin Pounds), and Leo (Deb Stanitz). She had no children of her own, but loved her many nieces and nephews, their spouses and children. She was predeceased by her brother-in-law Frank O’Keefe and grand-nephew Patrick O’Keefe. 

A Funeral Mass will be held on Saturday, June 8, 2024 at 10AM at St. Genevieve Church, 1225 Bethlehem Pike Flourtown, PA 19031.  Relatives and friends are invited to her viewings at the church on Friday June 7, 2024 from 6-8PM and again on Saturday from 9-10AM.  Interment Holy Sepulchre Cemetery.  

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be sent to the Brothers of Charity, Triest Hall, 7720 Doe Ln, Glenside, PA 19038.