By KATHERINE PETERSEN
Marlene Kroener dedicated more than 17 years of her life to managing the Nearly New Shop in Sunnyvale, a store that sells donated clothing to benefit the San Jose PEO home for women seniors.
Kroener, 64, passed away May 2 in her Palo Alto home after a short illness.
Kroener is survived by three sons: Dan of Bend, Ore.; David of Palo Alto: and Bruce of San Jose and his wife and daughter. A memorial service will be held for Kroener June 2 at 2 p.m. at the Nearly New Shop, 225 E. Maude Ave.
A longtime PEO member, Kroener became manager of the shop in 1979. Proceeds from the store go to the health unit of the PEO home for senior women, which is sponsored by area chapters of the international organization geared toward the education of women.
"The greatest thing she brought was dedication," said Jean Mortarotti, a PEO volunteer. "She coordinated the efforts of the volunteers who staff the shop. She was the guiding light."
Jane McClelland, a public relations volunteer for the Nearly New Shop, said Kroener also made friends with many of the customers.
"Many of them have very low incomes and she was glad to be of assistance to them," McClelland said.
Mortarotti said Kroener was a warm, loving and caring person who took the Nearly New Shop under her wing. "She loved this shop as much as we loved her. She liked to be around the people here. She worked here for 17 years and didn't take a vacation until four years ago," she said.
Although she was born in Bakersfield in 1931, Kroener considered herself a lifelong Palo Altan.
Memorial gifts may be sent to the Nearly New Shop, 225 E. Maude Ave., Sunnyvale, 94086 and may be designated for PEO Projects or the Midpeninsula Hospice.
Kroener's daughter-in-law Cathy said Kroener lived life to its fullest until the death of her husband, Donald Kroener, 20 years ago.
"Then she seemed to go into a shell. She loved crossword puzzles and would always play like a kid with my daughter, Nicole," she said.
She said that throughout her illness Kroener kept up a sense of humor.
"I was crying one day talking to her and telling her I was going to miss her and she told me some caregiver I'd turned out to be. She treated her illness like it was no big thing to her," Cathy Kroener said.
She added that Kroener lived in a large home in Palo Alto, but always drove her 1971 Pinto and wore secondhand clothes.
"She wasn't flamboyant about her money at all," she said.
This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, May 29, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.