Lasting Memories

Jacqueline Mitchell Child
1926-Sept. 21, 2007
Menlo Park, California

Jacqueline Mitchell Child, 81, a Menlo Park resident, died Sept. 21.

Born and raised on the family ranch in San Jose, she graduated from Los Gatos High School and San Jose State University, where she was president of the Kappa Kappa Gamma Sorority.

From 1948 to 1951 she taught second grade in the Palo Alto Unified School District. She later became a Pan American flight attendant, where she met her husband of 31 years, Ralph Pete Child, a mechanical engineer for Pan American. They spent their first year of marriage living in London and New York, N.Y., before returning to the Bay Area and settling in Menlo Park.

They enjoyed travel, bridge, theater, tennis and swimming. They were charter members of Ladera Oaks Swim and Tennis Club.

She was involved in her children's schools, served as a longtime member of the Trinity Episcopal Church Altar Guild and worked as a volunteer at Stanford's Lucile Salter Packard Children's Hospital.

She is survived by her sons, Mike Child of Atherton and Jeff Child of Menlo Park; daughter, Nancy Child of Menlo Park; sister, Barbara Kirtley of Ridgefield, Conn.; and 12 grandchildren.