R. Jeanette Kruer

R. Jeanette Kruer was a longtime resident of the Oakwood and Kettering area of Ohio whose life centered on family, craft, church, and the quiet pleasures of a garden well tended. She died peacefully on September 18, 2026, at Madonna Manor in Villa Hills, Kentucky, at the age of 97. Her death was announced by Swart Funeral Home in West Carrollton, Ohio, which handled arrangements and published her family's tribute.

She was born on March 1, 1929, in Warren County, Ohio, the daughter of Charles Dearth Sheehan and Rea Melvina (Stacy) Sheehan. Over a long adulthood she made a home in Oakwood and Kettering, where she became a familiar presence at Fairmont Presbyterian Church and among neighbors who knew her for hospitality and holiday gatherings. She retired from Gem Savings after a working life in banking, then devoted her later decades to the pursuits she loved most.

Jeanette's family remembered her as someone who made ordinary days feel intentional. She enjoyed gardening, sewing, needlework, ceramics, crafts, and cooking, and she planned activities so that grandchildren could share those hobbies with her. In her fifties she spent a decade traveling internationally, often bringing relatives along on world trips that widened the family's map of shared memories. She also kept a lifelong passion for football, watching each play of Cincinnati Bengals and Ohio State Buckeyes games with a critical fan's eye.

She was preceded in death by Clifford W. Kruer and Mark E. Eshbaugh, and by her sister, Clara Bernice McFadden. She is survived by her sons George Kruer and Duane Kruer; her daughter Carol Kruer (Troy Bode); grandchildren Robyn Crouch (James), William Will Kruer, and Alex Kruer; and four great-grandchildren, Ella, John, Ava, and Jonah.

In her memory, the family asked friends to extend a helping hand to a neighbor rather than send flowers. Entombment is at Miami Valley Memory Gardens mausoleum, with arrangements by Swart Funeral Home. No cause of death was disclosed. R. Jeanette Kruer's public record is that of a private citizen rather than a national figure, yet the detail of her obituary shows a life measured in care for family, craftsmanship, faith, and the small rituals that hold a household together across nearly a century.