Named after the first woman member of congress, Jeannette Rankin of Montana, Jeannette Rankin Byers, the oldest of 12 Rankin Family siblings, would have reached her 89th birthday in July. She was the Rankin family matriarch since the death of our mother. She was a great lady. One of the most considerate people to live on the planet. She was the most communicative member of the Rankin Family. She was frugal but generous. She spent little for herself but very supportive of worthy causes, including her church and Louisiana College, the Alma Mater of three of her siblings. She was smart and intuitive. She had a head for investment and was her own "woman."

Hillside Christian Church Kansas City -
Jeannette's church for many years.
Click Hillside Christian Church

In her early years - around 1939 - before leaving the Shreveport area, she received the "Miss Pygmalion" award.

She loved her family – not only the immediate family – but all of the clan of uncles and aunts and their descendants. She did well in staying in touch with most of the family members through the years. She started a family Paper in the early 1970s called The Rankin File. She was faithful in getting the paper to family periodically with an overwhelming amount of information in each issue. She did it on a manual typewriter with some copying of images to augment the text. This was not an easy task.

Jeannette also was the historian for her church for many years. Hundreds of hours were spent on this project. Despite this she had time to send letters and photos to family members and others. She was thoughtful in her endeavors.

Jeannette was a natural born writer as her newsletters will show. The files I have kept have a wealth of information on family members which I will pass on to my daughter and grandchildren. My words won’t describe the person of Jeannette. Perhaps the following excerpt from her May 1995 family letter provides insight. It is entitled . . .