Obituary of Jeanette Sterns

STERNS, G. Jeanette Pictou / Glace Bay After a long and well-lived life, Geraldine Jeanette Sterns died on March 22, 2024, at the Aberdeen Hospital Palliative Care Unit, in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia after a brief illness. Jeanette was born on August 14th, 1919, in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia to Archibald MacVicar and Margaret Anne (MacVicar) MacVicar. Jeanette was predeceased by her six older siblings, Viola Margaret (Ronald Ferguson), Christy Anna (Charles Knowles), Allan Henry Inglis (Ina Lillian Smith), John Duncan, Christene Catherine (George Kendall O’Neil), and Donald Archibald (Isabelle June Lawley). After high school, Jeanette attended the Provincial Normal College in Truro to become a school teacher and then taught in the Glace Bay school system until she married William Stewart Sterns in 1946. Jeanette and Stewart had two children, Gwenyth Louise and William ‘Bill’ Stewart (Elaine Babinec). She loved and supported her family and her community of Glace Bay and area. Awhile after Stewart’s death in 2011, she moved to Braeshore, Pictou County to be near her son and his family. The Pictou area was a long-time family summer vacation spot for Jeanette and Stewart. Besides her parents, siblings, and her husband Stewart, she was also predeceased by her daughter, Gwen in 2005. Jeanette is survived, and will be greatly missed, by her son, Bill and his wife, Elaine and their daughter, Georgina Babinec; her sister-in-law, June Sterns; nieces and nephews, and many friends in Glace Bay and Pictou. Special thanks to the doctors and nursing staff of the ER and Palliative Care Unit at the Aberdeen Hospital for their excellent care and compassion through Jeanette’s final days, and a very special thank you to Jeanette’s closest friend and care giver over the last several years, Nellie Rafuse. Cremation has taken place and a celebration of Jeanette’s life will be held at a later date. As Jeanette was a founding member of the Glace Bay Heritage Society, a charitable donation honoring Jeanette’s memory could be made to the Glace Bay Heritage Museum Society, or the Pictou West Food Bank, or a charity of your choice.