Jeanne Marie Hamilton Strong

Jeanne Marie Hamilton Strong was born on December 8, 1932 in Rochester, New York and passed away peacefully on October 16, 2025 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Jeanne is survived by her three adult children: Donald Bruce (Monta) Rahtjen, Nancy Jeanne Wachter, and James Robert (Kathy) Rahtjen, from her first marriage to Rev. Bruce Rahtjen. Their son, Steven David Rahtjen, died in infancy.

Jeanne married Jerry Strong in Kansas City, Kansas on July 6, 1984. Jerry preceded her in death on July 21, 2025. Jeanne and Jerry enjoyed their large, blended family of six adult children, fourteen grandchildren, and multiple great-grandchildren, in Stilwell, Kansas, and later in California City, California, and Blue Springs, Missouri.

Jeanne received her Phi Beta Kappa key and graduated magna cum laude from the University of Rochester in 1955 with her degree in elementary education. She later received a degree in medical technology from the University of Missouri at Kansas City and subsequently ran the blood bank at Bethany Hospital in Kansas City, Kansas for many years until her retirement.

Jeanne had many lifelong interests, including her love of language, reading, wordplay, and nature in all its guises, with a special spot in her heart for birds. She also loved music and art and created many beautiful samplers and other inspired forms of intricate needlework throughout her life. She practiced yoga with Silver Sneakers into her eighties. Another of her favorite pastimes was walking her little white dog, Miles almost every day...and, of course, for miles.

Jeanne had a quick wit, was smart, gentle, and warm; a loving presence on this earth, she was a thoroughly wonderful human being. Though she will be greatly missed, her love lives on, ever-brightly, inside each of us.

A joint Memorial Service for Jeanne Marie Hamilton Strong and Jerry Ramond Strong will be held at Chapel Hill Presbyterian Church, 3108 US-40 in Blue Springs, Missouri 64015, on Saturday, November 15, 2025 at 11:00 AM. She will later be interred with her husband, Jerry Strong, at Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery in Leavenworth, Kansas on Monday November 17, 2025.