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Jennifer Tardy

Updated: Oct 16, 2023



Jennifer Tardy, born in San Francisco, CA, in 1946 and died in Iowa City, Iowa, on October 12, 2023. Her parents were Lauriston and Miriam Tardy. They lived in Marin from 1938 to the mid-1960s. Both were teachers, Lauriston at San Rafael and Terra Linda High Schools. Miriam at Bernard Hoffman in the old Dixie School District. Jenni's older sister, Judy, taught in Novato School District, 1959-1964; she died in 2016.


Survivors include her brother Dwight (Vicki); nieces, Tammy (Louis Rossi) and Christine (Matthew Abraham); and great niece and nephews, Cassandra, Noah and Benjamin.


Jenni attended San Rafael public schools. Her high school senior year was spent traveling with her sister from August 1963-July 1964 in most of Latin America, parts of Africa, middle east and parts of southeast Asia. She received her BA from Sonoma State University, and a MA from the University of Iowa. She substituted in Marin County, Vallejo and Stockton and also taught full time in northeast Iowa and in the San Joaquin Valley, CA.


The year after her BA, Jenni was in Vista for one year, the domestic version of the Peace Corp. She worked on a low income project for senior citizens. At the end of that year she found she'd learned more from the senior citizens than the other way around.


After early retirement in education, she lived in Sacramento, CA, and took writing classes at community college. She also took a class making collages, history of old Paris, and other history classes. She wrote for almost two years for a local newspaper chain. Her poems and short stories were published in small literary journals.


After finding a handwritten cookbook filled with recipes from grandparents and other relatives Jennifer selected some of the recipes and also asked current members of that family line for short bios, photos and recipes. The result was a 300+ page book.


When Jenni moved back to her childhood home in San Rafael, she again took history and writing classes, and continued writing short stories and poems and took up bowling which she enjoyed; it was a good way to exercise, meet people and lunch with the other bowlers.


Due to ill health in 2023, she moved to Iowa City, Iowa, to be closer to Dwight and Vicki, who helped her in many ways during her illness. She died of cancer in 2023. Her family wishes to express their gratitude to Dr. Craig Champion and Iowa City Hospice for their help and support through the last two months.






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