Citing safety threats, California lawmakers are advancing a bill that would keep the property they own and other personal information from annual financial disclosures off the internet.

The measure, Assembly Bill 1170, would shift to an electronic filing system for the statement of economic interest, known as Form 700, that elected officials and some public employees in California are required to complete each year.But a secondary provision proposes to expand the redactions on publicly available versions of the form, shielding the addresses of filers’ real property interests and businesses, though they would still be available upon request.

Organizations that advocate for greater transparency in government have objected to withholding information that could illuminate conflicts of interest. Laurel Brodzinsky, legislative director for California Common Cause, said Form 700 is an important tool for understanding how elected officials’ economic interests shape their decision-making.

“We do think that having that transparency is really important for accountability,” Brodzinsky said.

A compromise on the bill — which is on the Assembly floor and faces a deadline to pass out of the chamber by Wednesday — may be imminent.

Assemblymember Avelino Valencia, the Anaheim Democrat who is carrying the measure, said he is working on amendments that would narrow the redactions to only addresses where a filer lives. He declined to further discuss any changes.

“By modernizing state processes and improving government efficiency, we are focused on the priority of saving the state money during this critical budget time,” Valencia said in a text message. “However, that will not come at the expense of the public’s access to government documents that provide transparency into potential conflicts of interest.”

Lawmakers are increasingly raising concerns about what they say has been a rise in political violence and harassment in recent years, such as the October 2022 hammer attack against then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband at their San Francisco home.

During a committee hearing for AB 1170 earlier this month, Assemblymember Gail Pellerin, a Santa Cruz Democrat, said she believes “the expanded redaction requirements in the bill are important to ensure filers’ privacy and safety.”

The Legislature approved another bill last year that would have expanded the ability of California political candidates to use campaign funds to pay for security expenses, such as home security systems and bodyguards. It was ultimately vetoed by Gov. Gavin Newsom\, who said the measure did not provide enough guidance on what would be a legitimate security expense.

The Fair Political Practices Commission, the state campaign ethics regulator that manages the statement of economic interest, sponsored Valencia’s bill because it wants to require electronic filing of the form. Senior legislative counsel Lindsey Nakano said the redaction provision came out of discussions with lawmakers about increased security and safety issues.

“We heard concern about people who might use the addresses found online on the Form 700s to harass the filer or those connected to them, including to potentially harass tenants of real property owned by the Form 700 filer,” Nakano said in an email. “I’m not aware of any specific incidences.”

The bill, as currently written, would also require the commission to redact the signature, personal address and telephone number of a filer, though none of that information currently appears in the copies of Form 700s available online.

Brodzinsky of California Common Cause said there are reasonable limitations on what information is disclosed about elected officials and other public servants given the threat of violence.

“We do understand the concerns of the privacy of the filer and they would not want their residential address out so publicly on the internet,” she said.

But there are also legitimate reasons for making the real property interests of filers known, Brodzinsky argued. She pointed to an investigation last fall by the San Francisco Standard into a city building inspector who signed off on construction permits for his own home, which cited Form 700 records.

CalMatters analyzed legislators’ real property interests in 2019, as they were considering a measure to cap rent increases, and found that more than a quarter of the members of the Legislature at the time were landlords.

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CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.

Before California’s fast food workers get a minimum wage hike to $20 an hour in April, the state will grant them another historic avenue to advance their interests.

A first-in-the-nation fast food council will offer workers and labor advocates a way to set industry working conditions, hammering out rules directly across the table from franchise owners and representatives of restaurant chains such as McDonald’s and Burger King.

The council is supposed to start meeting by March 15, and its decisions will be sent to state labor agencies to decide if they’ll become real regulations. Gov. Gavin Newsom will have a hand in how the discussion plays out: He’s responsible for appointing seven of the council’s nine members; legislative leaders will appoint the other two. The positions are unpaid, except for $100 per day for council business.

The council will be split, 4-4, between business and labor. Newsom will pick the chairperson, who is “unaffiliated” with fast food businesses or workers — and could end up regularly being a tie-breaking vote. The governor’s office is interviewing applicants now, a spokesperson said.

Labor advocates see the council as a way to decide workplace standards in an industry with scant union representation and multiple kinds of companies involved — including the franchise owners who employ the workers, and the large chains that dictate various aspects of production.

In recent years, the labor movement has also sought industry-wide councils for nursing home workers in Minnesota and nail salon workers in New York, borrowing from a European method of bargaining with employers that is uncommon in the U.S.

California is the first to convene a council for fast food, a sprawling industry employing mostly workers of color and women, who earn on average less than those in other service sectors. More than 500,000 people are employed in more than 30,000 limited-service restaurants in California, according to federal data; the council will govern those that belong to chains with 60 or more locations nationally.

The council, said SEIU California president David Huerta last year when Newsom signed the law creating it, puts “power in the hands of workers to improve conditions across their entire industry.”

It’s also a five-year experiment in how to regulate businesses in general across California — by returning to a model from the past.

For most of the 20th century, the state’s now-dormant Industrial Welfare Commission — a similar, but more powerful council with labor and business representatives — convened wage boards specific to certain industries. The boards took testimony from workers and employers and wrote work standards in those industries.

Lawmakers did away with the commission two decades ago, after unions complained it had been seized by business interests to pass regulations that were less protective of workers’ rights. Now, labor laws are almost all passed by the Legislature, which former commissioners from both business and labor say is less responsive to an industry’s specific needs.

Though business groups have pushed back on the idea of industry-specific labor boards, lawmakers have signaled they’re interested. Last year, during negotiations between the fast food industry and labor groups, the Legislature briefly resurrected the old commission, with a focus on industries with high levels of worker poverty.

“It is likely we’ll see a continued push for both more sectoral labor standards” such as minimum wages specific to the fast food or health care industries, said UC Berkeley Labor Center co-chairperson Ken Jacobs, “as well as the use of labor standards boards in certain industries, where the structure of the industry makes traditional collective bargaining more difficult.”

Former industrial welfare commissioner Barry Broad, a former lobbyist for unions who now sits on the state’s Agricultural Labor Relations Board, recalls convening wage boards that would discuss specifics such as tipping practices in hospitality jobs, the length of shifts in nursing and how cement mixers almost universally took lunch breaks in the cabs of their trucks. He sees promise in creating such a forum that gets deep into details, for fast food work or other sectors.

“When you have something which is industry-specific like this … you’d get a consensus about how the work was organized and what the customs were” across that industry, Broad said in an interview. “There was a common understanding, and it led to compromise.”

More fights ahead?

But after more than two years of a dizzying political fight between business and labor over whether to even consider specific regulations for fast food, will the new council result in more of the same battles?

Broad said it’s possible to reach consensus, depending on who gets on the council.

But his former colleague, Bill Dombrowski, a representative of employers on the industrial commission, remembered its meetings as being just as contentious as the business-labor fights of today.

“We jokingly referred to it as the Industrial Warfare Commission,” Dombrowski said, though he agreed that the process was preferable to business and labor going through the Legislature.

Appointed by then-Democratic Gov. Gray Davis, Dombrowski said he understood the commission would push through labor-friendly policies Davis had backed, such as returning to a rule of paying workers overtime for time beyond eight hours a day. But his role was to “try to make it as business-friendly as you can.”

In the fast food industry, however, business groups aren’t happy to be coming to the table, and they’re likely to cite costs to push back on any new proposed regulations.

Pizza Hut employees strike to protest ongoing wage theft and abusive scheduling claims in Los Angeles on Jan. 26, 2024. Photo by Lauren Justice for CalMatters

Restaurant owners are already wary of the upcoming wage hike.

In December two Pizza Hut franchise operators notified the state they are eliminating delivery services and in February will lay off more than 1,100 drivers, mostly in southern California. The cuts will take place two months before the $20 minimum fast food wage goes into effect. (The statewide minimum wage ticked up to $16 on Jan. 1.)

The layoff notices did not mention the new law, but Jeff Hanscom of the International Franchise Association, which backed the deal leading to the fast food council and the wage hike, said restaurant owners across the state are considering whether it’ll prompt them to do the same.

“We have said all along, that you can’t have a double-digit percentage increase in wages overnight, and not expect there to be repercussions,” he said.

The law creating the council has also drawn the ire of many other restaurant owners, who are just now learning they’ll be included under any new rules — including the wage hike, said Matt Sutton, senior vice president of government affairs and public policy for the California Restaurant Association.

When business and labor agreed on the scope of the council last year, they included restaurants belonging to a chain of 60 or more locations nationally; a prior version of the law covered those in chains with 100 or more locations.

“There’s a lot of people that are caught off guard,” Sutton said, predicting restaurants not covered by the law and other businesses will also be pressured to raise wages. “That is going to have a tremendous shock.”

How will the council work?

The fast food council, having undergone significant changes since SEIU first proposed it in 2021, won’t be as sweeping or as powerful as the old industrial commission, which created new regulations directly.

After pushing the proposal through the Legislature in 2022 and then being subject to a multimillion-dollar industry campaign to repeal it at the ballot box, labor groups ultimately ended up last fall with a wage hike for workers and a more limited council. The industry, in turn, agreed to withdraw the referendum from the November 2024 ballot.

There are some workplace issues the council can’t touch, including creating any rules requiring employers to give workers more paid time off, or requiring businesses to adopt predictable scheduling policies.

And outside of minimum wages, most rules passed by the council would head to the state’s labor agencies, which could still revise them through the regular rulemaking process before making them law. That was a win for the employers, said Hanscom of the franchise association, which represents both franchise owners and fast food brands.

“We want to ensure that the council is simply not a rubber stamp for” labor groups, Hanscom said. “We want to ensure that there’s a counter-voice.”

Meetings will be public, held at least once every six months. With the first meeting scheduled in less than two months, there are few other details public about who will be on the council and what it will discuss.

It will be part of the Department of Industrial Relations, a state labor agency. Newsom will appoint two fast food workers, two franchise owners, two fast food corporate representatives and the neutral member of the public. The two other spots, filled by legislative leaders, are reserved for workers’ advocates.

Newsom’s office did not respond to questions about what he’s looking for in appointees.

A former “public member” of the old industrial commission, ex-U.S. Rep. Doug Bosco, said he wasn’t the tie-breaking vote as often as he expected. “It was quite reasonable and quite centered and balanced, and not impervious to the political whims but not beholden to them either,” he said.

Still, when asked how a neutral member should run the fast food council, he chuckled and said: “Don’t take the job.”

The council will also include non-voting representatives from the Department of Industrial Relations and the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development.

No appointees have been announced yet, and business groups have been mum on who they’re pushing for the seats. On the labor side, Maria Maldonado, statewide leader of efforts to organize fast food workers through the Fight for 15 campaign, said she’s interviewed with the Legislature for a workers’ advocate seat.

“We’re going to have a democratic process where (workers) can raise issues and talk about solutions,” she said. “I hope that we can really convince (businesses) that we need to work together.”

Whether on the council or as a future advocate at its meetings, Maldonado said her first goal will be to “protect the workers’ hours” from getting cut in response to the wage hikes.

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CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.

I’ve been making a collection of myths I have come across over the years. Here’s a selection for your entertainment and, perhaps, edification.

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MYTH: The largest pyramid in the world is the Great Pyramid in Gaza, Egypt

FACT: That’s the highest. The largest pyramid by volume is the Great Pyramid of Cholula, Mexico

MYTH: Milk is drunk everywhere

FACT: Most of the world’s adult population, about 65%, is lactose-intolerant

MYTH: The ancients thought the world was flat, and that everything revolved around us

FACT: A globe was made around 150 BC, and the idea that the Earth orbits the sun dates from at least 230 BC

MYTH: Color photography started in the 1930s thanks to Kodak

FACT: It was well established before the First World War, notably in Russia with Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky

MYTH: The Christmas star happened in December

FACT: The best bet is, what we think of as the Xmas star was a close conjunction of Venus and Jupiter in 2 BC

MYTH: Blue moons are rare occurrences

FACT: A blue moon (the second full moon of the month) occurs at least once every three years

MYTH: White (or pink) skin color is normal

FACT: 100,000 years ago we were all black, before migrations to higher latitudes resulted in loss of melatonin

MYTH: Evolution and Intelligent Design are equal contenders in explaining life on Earth

FACT: ID is thinly concealed Creationist mumbo-jumbo, per the ruling of the (Republican) judge in the Dover School District trial, 2005.

MYTH: There are exactly seven colors in a rainbow

FACT: The spectrum of white light, as in a rainbow, can be split into an arbitrary number of colors

MYTH: Everest is the world’s highest mountain

FACT: Depends where you measure from. If “highest” means, “farthest from Earth’s center,” that’s Ecuador’s Chimborazo

MYTH: Neanderthals had low intelligence and were ill-suited to the environment in which they lived

FACT: Neanderthals were spectacularly successful in Ice-Age Europe. Most of us carry up to 4% of their genes

MYTH: Science always progresses from idea to hypothesis to theory to experiment to law

FACT: Many “discoveries” in science came about by serendipity, including penicillin, X-rays, and the cosmic background radiation

MYTH: Bath water going down the plug hole swirls in the opposite direction in the southern hemisphere due to the Coriolis Effect

FACT: The Coriolis Effect only works on much larger scales than your bath!

MYTH: Roman chariot wheels led to the “standard gauge” used by railways worldwide

FACT: The most common gauge of 4ft. 8 1/2in. (1435 mm.) is only 200 years old

MYTH: Without the unique “Rosetta Stone,” Egyptian hieroglyphs couldn’t have been deciphered

FACT: Many Rosetta-type stones were unearthed following the original discovery in 1799

MYTH: WD-40 fixes everything

FACT: You also need duct tape

Jody Lane Brewer
May 16, 1965 – Dec. 24, 2023

Jody took his last breath at 8:40 p.m. on Xmas Eve to begin his journey as one of our precious angels.

Jody grew up in Humboldt County and lived in Manila as a child and what a child he was — full of mischief and energy, never a dull moment when he was around.

Jody was a dreamer, always talking about traveling and buying property to build a home for him and his girl and two dogs. He also loved the beach, where he always collected rocks and shells — that was his thing — and playing with his dog, Guppy, who loved the beach as well, and then he had the other small 4 lb. teacup named Paris — he would put her in his sleeve or coat and take her every where with him. He said it made for a conversation piece and every day and evening he would tell the two girl dogs that they were good girls and kiss them on their heads. He really spoiled them.

Jody had this kind of magical and magnetic aura about him that would attract people to him of all ages, color or sizes. Someone was almost always helping or giving him things and he was forever finding the darndest things, like all the time.

Jody took to the streets year ago and choose to make it and the people he befriended in it his family. He loved all the people and they loved him, other than the ones that will be named below they were his people and that’s where he felt safe and comfortable. He wanted me to be sure and let the people of the streets know that .

Jody had his other side to him and wore a dress and makeup from time to time, but that’s what made him who he was, then one day he. met a girl with long dark hair and fell in love and he decided she was his life partner and best friend up until he took his last breath on that unfortunate night with her by his side.

Jody is survived by his girlfriend and best friend, Robinn McNertney Baird and her family and many children and grandchildren. He has two sisters whom he cherished dearly, Robin Lovejoy and her children and her partner Kenny Mendoza and Ethel Still and her children and her partner Jason. Jody also has a very close and dear friend who was always there for him no matter what and he expressed his gratitude towards her — he said “Merna Reyes rocks.”

A Celebration of Jody’s life will be held at the Amphitheater by the Adorni Center at 2 p.m. on January 30, 2024, bring an umbrella in case it sprinkles, there will be a balloon release at the end of the celebration and markers to send him a message as well as a large bucket with all the rocks from Jody’s truck that he picked himself so please feel free to take one or two.

REST IN PEACE MR. JODY BREWER AND DANCE WITH THE ANGELS FOR YOU ARE ONE OF THEM NOW!!!!4

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Have you ever wondered what exactly the Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation, and Conservation District does, who runs it, and how on earth did they manage to get a $426 million federal grant for a Heavy Lift Terminal for building offshore wind turbines? Tune in for a conversation with Chris Mikkelsen, the District’s new Executive Director.

For more info:

• Humboldt Bay Offshore Wind Heavy Lift Marine Terminal Project
• The Biggest Federal Grant in Humboldt History?

This story will have no great, if any, impact on the history of Humboldt County for it is a simple one. Yet for 50 years it has haunted my memory, and to the best of my knowledge it never has been told until now.

Besides, back there was a lovely and even then ancient Indian lady who lived a lonely and almost incredibly heroic life and thus deserves more, if only this bit more, than the nameless pauper’s grave to which she must have been consigned.

It is the story of Blind Annie. What her true name may have been, or her age, none of us ever knew. She could have been 80 or she could have been 120. Her sculptured face, weathered by sun, wind and salt spray to a rich and beautiful mahogany, kept her secret, and it is probably true that she herself did not know the number of her years, Annie reputedly was one of the few survivors of the atrocity of Indian Island in Humboldt Bay — the Massacre of the Innocents — of 1860. This, though unprovable, is not improbable, since legend held that “a young girl” had escaped the wanton slaughter by means of throwing herself into the bay and drifting with the outgoing tide on a log, or other flotsam, to the sandy beach just north of the point where Elk River enters the bay south of Bucksport.

Since our encounter here occurred during the mid-1920s, Annie’s apparent age would come well within the span of years to make that a possibility.

She lived in a rude one-room cabin perhaps a dozen yards above the high tide line, and legend also held that she had built it herself. This, too, bears weight because the principal construction was of vertical log slabs much in the fashion of the older Indian homes along the Klamath and Trinity Rivers, I clearly remember the shallow-ridged roof, and how she could have managed that is part of the mystery, for Annie was a tiny woman. One could see daylight through it from the inside, in many places, yet when it rained not a single drop came through. There was no floor, and a small wood fire inside a circle of stones in the center kept her reasonably warm and served her for cooking during inclement weather. Otherwise, she cooked outside, within a similar circle of stones. She had few utensils, needed nearly none. That, then, sets the basic picture.

So, why did we not simply ask Annie if she truly was a survivor of the white mob’s massive brutality back there on Indian Island? We did, on several occasions. And in each case, the soft spoken lady became totally mute, the dim light in her eyes retreating into their darker depths. And she would speak no more that day. We soon stopped asking.

Now — who were “we,” of all the previous references herein? “We” were the members of Troop 20, Boy Scouts of America. The writer was a Second Class Scout in the Owl Patrol. We had “adopted” Annie. In the beginning she was what then was called a Troop Project. In a very brief time, Annie became a Love Project for each and all of us. The project was to keep her well supplied with firewood and kindling, which we garnered from up and down the beach, sawed and split, and stacked against the wall of the cabin within easy reach, with the kindling placed inside in a corner, out of the weather.

Annie soon come to know each of us individually, by passing her hands over our faces, our hair, asking its color and the color of our eyes, and measuring our heights against her own. One of her almost incredible accomplishments was that she came to identify each of us when we walked alone, past or near to her, by our footsteps — in the sand. For a long, long time she delighted in not telling us how she managed this, but she finally yielded. It was by sound, faint as it was.

“You no weigh same,” she grinned.

The ancient lady was self-sufficient so far as sea foods, then plentiful on the long, sloping shore, were concerned. She caught crabs simply by wading out in little more than ankle- deep water and feeling for them. These she cooked in a small galvanized wash tub, which she filled with salt bay water from a finely woven basket. She was adept with a fishing line, using tube worms and clam necks for bait.

Clams she dug with an instrument which she herself devised, and I have never since seen another like it. It was, basically, a tree limb about five feet long, with one short branch for her foot near the digging end. The blade she had fire-hardened, then flattened and polished with stones, so that it was as good as any shovel ever manufactured. Annie in fact spurned the “real” shovel and most other implements we brought her. The clams she cooked simply by placing them on the hot sand near the fire, the fish on stocks set at an angle over the coals. The eggs we brought her periodically she simply buried in the same hot sand.

A big treat for Annie, whenever we could get them in season, was fresh berries, domestic or wild, although she managed well with some nearby wild blackberries herself, , judging by feel when they were ripe.

Her bathing and what little laundry she had were done in the waters of the Elk River mouth, regardless of the weather. And then we grew older, and went our ways, and when I returned to Humboldt County many years later, all trace of Annie, and even of the old cabin, had vanished.

As I said, this story is no epic, but whoever the kind and lovable old lady may have been, she now shares a tiny niche in the history she shared and, to this degree, made.

Annie was far from blind. She was only sightless.

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Ed. note: Annie’s sister, Jane Sam, told her story of surviving the the Indian Island massacre. Historian Jerry Rohde refers to this story in this article.

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The story above was originally printed in the May-June 1976 issue of the Humboldt Historian, a journal of the Humboldt County Historical Society. It is reprinted here with permission. The Humboldt County Historical Society is a nonprofit organization devoted to archiving, preserving and sharing Humboldt County’s rich history. You can become a member and receive a year’s worth of new issues of The Humboldt Historian at this link.

I write this obituary in loving memory of Barbara Jean Kanen, born October 8, 1948. She passed away peacefully in her sleep on January 9, 2024. I know obituaries are usually short and to the point, but there is no way to quickly sum up this amazing woman’s 75+ years of life. She deserves to have books written about her, but this will have to do for now. Hopefully by the end of this you’ll feel like you know Barb a bit better.

Where do I start? Barbara, Barb, Barbie, GG, Grandma Um, Grandma Jean, she really was a woman of many names. Please call her whatever you want to call her, just never call her Babs.

Barbara was born in Washington, and she was raised in Humboldt County where she remained her whole life. Barbara was the second oldest of 4 sisters, whom she absolutely adored.

Barbara spent her early life on farms and ranches while her father, Lowell Kanen, worked as a ranch hand and caretaker. She occasionally could be found helping him, but more often up to no good. She used to tell us stories about teasing bulls with brooms, dangling from the barn rafters, laying in fields playing dead waiting for the vultures to come get her, harassing the cattle, and generally being up to no good. When she wasn’t helping her dad and causing trouble, she was helping her mother, Bobbie Kanen, out with the more domestic side of life. Barb loved cooking, gardening and sewing with her mom, but she had some other hobbies as well. Such as giving bouquets of poison oak, jumping out of a second story window (at the age of 2) and in general giving her mom a run for her money. Eventhough Barb was the second oldest of her siblings, she was typically the leader in trouble making, teasing boys, and getting into trouble.

Barbara attended Fortuna Junior Academy, until the 10th grade where she went to Rio Lindo Academy and Lodi Academy to complete her high-school education.

She had developed a knack for baking and spent several years working at the little bakery in Fortuna, called Better Bread Bakery, and wedding cakes were her favorite to make. She made dozens of wedding cakes over the years.

Barbara got married in 1969, the following year her oldest daughter, Robyn was born. In 1972 her youngest daughter, Janet was born. She took in her son, Tim several years later. Barbara divorced 16 years into her marriage and continued raising her children as a single mother. Barbara went on to raise her oldest granddaughter, also named Robyn, as well. She taught us all of the skills we needed to be strong independent women, and that it’s possible to make it on your own.

Barbara was a devout Seventh Day Adventist and truly lived her life for God. She dedicated over 20 years of her life to volunteering as the Dorcas director for the local SDA church community service center, helping the homeless, running food drives and toy drives, filling bellies with warm food and giving people a warm place to sleep. She had an incredible singing voice, she often enjoyed doing the special music for the church service, singing hymns and praising God. She was also one of the church florists for many years and provided the church with bouquet arrangements for church service. Barb really did dedicate her life to volunteering for the church in every shape and form.

Barb was also a Pathfinder leader for several years, teaching multiple badges and honors, including the sewing and birdwatching honor, organizing camping trips, backpacking trips, camporees and fundraiser events.

She also spent many years helping with the SDA Redwood Area Camp Meeting meal program, treasury and coordination.

Barbara was a professional yenta, jack of all trades, animal lover, and a force of nature on her own. She had an answer for just about everything, a solution and a method, followed by 3 alternate options if the first answer wasn’t right. Barb was fiercely independent, hard headed and opinionated. She had a deep love for the outdoors and spent many deer seasons hunting with a bow & arrow, camping, backpacking, and exploring.

Along with her love for the outdoors of course came a love for birdwatching, agate hunting, wildflower picking and weather watching. I have spent countless hours, and I mean countless, sitting in the car being as quiet as a little kid could be waiting for whatever fancy bird she was prowling for to show up. Does anyone else remember calling the Audubon hotline for local rare bird sightings? I sure do.

In the first part of spring we would go pick wildflowers and she taught us how to perfectly press them, identify them, and she taught us what they could be used for. We have spent hours at the beach sifting through sand, building sandcastles and comparing who got the biggest agate of the day. She loved chasing storms, sitting in the rain, and watching the surf get way too close for comfort.

Aside from her love of birds and flowers, Barbara found tons of joy in her hobbies, primarily sewing and embroidery, painting and making floral arrangements. With her love of sewing she also became titled the family seamstress. She spent many years quilting with the church ladies making baby blankets for families and church members in need, sewing clothes for her girls, making dresses and blouses for herself, and every year at Christmas her grandkids got a set of homemade PJs. Barb also loved music, you could find her humming along to Willie Nelson, Marty Robbins, or a hymn almost constantly.

She shared her love of sewing with her daughters and granddaughters, she taught us to embroider and make our own clothes, she taught us how to fix, repair and maintain anything and everything, she taught us survival skills, hunting, cooking, baking, cleaning and above all she taught us patience.

Barbara lived life on her own terms, and nobody could change that. She was stubborn and loving, and was pretty sure she was always right. Most of the time, turns out, she was.

She was preceded in death by her beloved parents, Lowell & Bobbie Kanen, and she leaves behind her two daughters, Janet, and Robyn, her adopted son, Tim, her granddaughters, Kitana and Robyn, and her great grandchildren, Marshall, Saphira and Christina. She preceded her 3 sisters and their husband’s in death, and far too many distant relatives to list. Of course we have to mention her precious dog Bella.

Barb absolutely adored her family, but her great grandchildren were really the light of her life in these recent years.

There’s a lot more I could say about Grandma Jean, no words can sum up her life, but I hope this gave you some insight into the kind of woman she was.

Barbara’s celebration of life will be held March 10, 2024 at 1 p.m. in the Fortuna Seventh Day Adventist Dining Room. Please join us in her memory.

In lieu of flowers please make a small donation to Fortuna Dorcas, or the SDA church flower fund.

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