Christine Kier's Obituary
Christine Marie Kier, 94, passed away on May 1 , 2014. She was born in Bethlehem, PA on Friday, June 13, 1919, the daughter of E. J. and Bertha Hentrich Lagouros. She had one sibling, a brother, John, who passed away in El Paso, TX, at age 91. Christine was a Moravian, the name of the settlers who founded Bethlehem in the early 1700’s. While she lived in Bethlehem for most of the year, her summers were mostly spent in Peak’s Island, Maine, which is one of the so called “Calendar Islands” in Casco Bay, off the coast of Portland. They were called Calendar Islands because, according to folklore, there were 365 of them, but the actual number is less than 100. Peaks Island is the most populous of the islands and the one closest to Portland. It is serviced daily by ferry. She attended Moravian Prep School, two years of business college, followed by her first job as secretary to the manager of St. Luke’s Hospital in Bethlehem. She then decided to move to Washington, DC, where she lived for several years. She had some interesting secretarial jobs while in Washington. She then decided to move back to Bethlehem where she met her future husband, a Mississippi boy named John H. Kier. They met Friday, June 5, 1942, and were married Saturday, August 1, 1942 in the Olde Moravian Chapel in Bethlehem, PA, which was built in 1742 by the Moravian settlers. They were married for 68 years. The lived in Cape May, NJ, for a year and then John left for his naval service during World War II. After the war was over, John decided that he wanted to be a doctor, so he and Christine moved to Durham, North Carolina, where John became a student at Duke University School of Medicine and graduated in 1949. Christine worked as a secretary and put John through medical school. She typed a book called “Zinsser’s Textbook of Bacteriology” by her employers, David T. Smith and Donald S. Martin and it was published in 1948. It was 992 pages. Hans Zinsser originally wrote the book in 1910. This revision corrected many errors in the original writing. After medical school, they then moved to Detroit, Michigan, where John took his internship and residency training at Henry Ford Hospital. During this time, Christine again did secretarial work. In July of 1952, they moved to Memphis, TN, where John began a 41 year career as a physician, specializing in gastroenterology, with the Veterans Administration Hospital. He was also a Professor of Medicine at the University of Tennessee Medical School in Memphis until he retired in July, 1993. On September 7, 1952, their only child, John H. Kier III, was born and he presently resides in Roswell, GA, in the north Atlanta area where he is a CPA. John and Christine were married for 68 years when he passed on at the age of 90 on July 5, 2010. Christine had several hobbies, but the primary two were investing in the stock market and playing Bridge, where she achieved the status of Bronze Life Master. She follows in the footsteps of her parents, who also led long lives. Her father lived to be 90 and her mother lived to be 97. She loved her son more than anything in the world and there was nothing that she would not do for him. The family will receive friends beginning at 9 a.m. followed by funeral services at 10 a.m., Wednesday, May 7 at: Memorial Park Funeral Home, “Behind the stone wall”, 901-767-8930. Condolences may be offered at www.MemorialParkOnline.comFuneral arrangements have been entrusted to Memorial Park Funeral Home and Cemetery, 5668 Poplar Ave. Memphis, TN 38119, (901)767-8930, “Behind the Stone Wall”.
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