Dorothy Jean Dunn

Jean Dunn, 98, passed away peacefully at home on December 19, 2022 with her husband Bill at her side. A funeral Mass will be said at 11 a.m. Tuesday, December 27th, at St. Ann’s Catholic Church in Prairie Village; visitation will begin at 10 a.m. that day.

Faith and family were central themes in Jean’s life but there’s a lot more to the story than that. She was the second of six children born to Charles and Dorothy Aylward and grew up in a packed three-bedroom home in a Waldo neighborhood full of kids where Jean showed that she could scrap with the best of them. Her parents enrolled her in St. Elizabeth’s Grade School at the age of 4, a year younger than any of her classmates. She first met her future husband, Bill Dunn, in a piano class; she was 7 years old and he was 8. Jean quickly decided she didn’t like him when it became obvious that he was better at the piano.

Jean made many lifelong friends while attending St. Teresa’s Academy where she was a graduate of the Class of 1940. She wasn’t so fond of math, liked English, French and art and liked socializing even more. After she was elected class president at the high school, one of the nuns pulled her aside to say she wasn’t taking the role seriously enough – she was having “too much fun.” Jean attended St. Teresa College for a year before working a series of jobs -- a filing clerk at the Internal Revenue Service in downtown Kansas City, at Columbia National Bank where her father became president, and at the Pratt & Whitney Ammunition Plant.

Jean would talk about how much there was to do in Kansas City back then. Going to jazz clubs, especially the Pla-Mor Ballroom, was a favorite pastime for her and there was a fair amount of dating, too. One of those dates was with Bill Dunn in the early 40s but they lost touch during the war years.

Meanwhile her older sister and best friend, Kathleen, became a war bride and was stricken with a neurological disorder later diagnosed as multiple sclerosis right after her honeymoon. Kathleen wanted to meet up with her husband on Coronado Island before he was sent to the Pacific Theater during the summer of 1945. Her parents insisted that Jean accompany Kathleen and Jean also invited a friend whose husband had died in the Battle of the Bulge. Jean got her first real exposure to servicemen traumatized by the war on Coronado Island. She also caught the eyes of several interested military men.

After the war ended, three of those Navy officers followed Jean back home to propose to her but things changed at a Thanksgiving evening party in Kansas City. Navy pilot Bill Dunn struck up a conversation with Jean there and says he only dated “Jean the Queen” after that. He re-enrolled at Rockhurst College to finish degrees in mathematics and physics before Jean and he were married in February 1947 at St. Elizabeth’s Church. Bill was an excellent student and some of his professors encouraged him to go to work for the newly formed Midwest Research Institute while his father, J.E. “Ernie” Dunn wanted him to work for his construction company. Ernie won that tug of war and Bill went on to work for J.E. Dunn Construction Company for 73 years before retiring in January 2020. Three sons were born to Bill and Jean between 1948 and 1952: Bill Jr., Terry, and Steve.

Bill’s job responsibilities piled up as their family grew. Bill would typically work 13 hour days including an 8 pm to midnight shift at home when he would do estimating on construction projects. His heavy workload meant more at-home responsibilities for Jean but she wasn’t the sort of wife to bear all those duties silently. Bill might get a glare from her or a few sharp words if he came home too late for dinner but mostly their sons saw more hugs and kisses between the smoochy couple. Patience was never one of Jean’s virtues at home or in public. If a speaker got especially long winded at one of the countless business dinners Bill and Jean attended, she would nudge him and say, “Someone get the hook.”

Twin sons, Michael Joseph and John Patrick, died in infancy in 1955. Another son, Kevin, was born in 1958 and their last son, Bob, showed up in 1960. There are life changing events in all of our lives. For Jean and Bill, that event was in 1967 when their only daughter Mary was born with Down syndrome. Mary never functioned at a more than a two to three-year-old child’s level. She could be very loving but also a little temperamental when things didn’t go her way. She was challenging but Jean and Bill both saw her as their greatest blessing. The challenge reaffirmed both of their commitments to helping people facing hardships. For Jean, it also helped to deepen her religious faith. She became more involved in the Altar Society at St. Agnes Church where they belonged at the time, began saying the rosary every night and attending Mass daily whenever she could. After Mary died in 2007, Jean was a major donor in the construction of Mary’s grotto located on the Benedictine College campus in Atchison, Kansas. The stone grotto was meant to look like the one made famous in Lourdes, France by St. Bernadette. It pleased Jean to hear how the Benedictine students had embraced the site.

Jean could have a tough, competitive side especially on the tennis court. Bill and Jean prided themselves on taking on much younger couples on the tennis court and they even won 20 tennis tournaments. She also had a deeply sensitive side that was expressed in her artwork. After years of lessons, she became an accomplished artist and her portrait of an Irish fiddler hung in the Irish Museum at Union Station for many years. When Bill said his wife had a great personality what he really meant was that she had a caring personality. She made friends everywhere and was never condescending toward anyone. She had a wonderful sense of humor but there was never a sharp edge to her wit. She was a straight shooter and her friends wouldn’t have it had it any other way.

Jean was preceded in death by her parents, her sisters, Kathleen Mitchell and Mary Ann Henn; her brothers, Chuck, Bob, and Dick; her twin sons and her daughter, Mary. Survivors include her husband Bill of the home; her sons, Bill Jr. (Marianne), Terry (Peggy), Steve (Anne), Kevin (Bob Legler), and Bob (Amy); 20 grandchildren; and more than 40 great-grandchildren.

The family suggest contributions to Operation Breakthrough, St. Teresa’s Academy, Catholic Charities of Northeast Kansas, or Catholic Charities of Kansas City-St. Joseph.