Jody Kerssenbrock

June 8, 1937 – Jan. 22, 2023

Posted

Joan Lee Kerssenbrock was born June 8, 1937, in Crete, to George and Edith Doane Kersenbrock.  Her father was the postmaster and her mother was particularly noted for her beautiful singing voice. 

Jody graduated from Crete High School in 1954 and attended Doane before receiving her BFA from Omaha University.  She attended graduate school at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey, and the University of Munich Germany.  She proceeded to a classical concert career in New York City.  From 1962 until 1970, Jody sang professionally for live performances and album recordings.  As an alto, she sang with the New York Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra under Leonard Bernstein.  She was part of cultural exchange tours with the U.S. State Department including visits to South America and the Soviet Union with the Robert Shaw Chorale.

Composers and conductors with whom she worked also included Leopold Stokowski, Igor Stravinsky, Paul Hindemith and Charles Munch.  Jody performed for CBS, NBC and ABC in the 1960s.   Jody noted that she was chosen to sing the first performances of works by many composers including Leonard Bernstein, Alice Parker, Otto Luening, Thomas Wagner and Paul Hofreiter, her step-son. 

Jody sang at the funeral service for Robert F. Kennedy at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City on her 31st birthday and also sang a solo recital at Lincoln Center in 1968.   

In the 1970s, she worked in refugee resettlement in Philadelphia, moved to Massachusetts. She owned and operated the Hidden Brook bed and breakfast in Plainfield,  Massachusetts.  Kerssenbrock was a vocal coach for the Handel and Hadyn Society in Boston and served on the board for State’s Arts Lottery Council. 

With deep feelings for Crete, Jody made plans to move back to Nebraska in the 1990s and purchased and restored the Otto Prucha property in Crete, saving it from the wrecking ball.  The historic Crete home featured a topiary garden filled with trimmed evergreen bushes in a variety of shapes, including a giraffe, dog, elephant, a horse and rider as well as geometric forms.  The garden also featured a Japanese Koi Pond with wooden arched bridge and two cages, one for a bear.  The gardens were featured in Life Magazine in 1947.     

Jody finished her musical career as a coordinator of private musical instruction at Lawrenceville School in New Jersey.  During this time, she wrote and performed The Ballad of Crete for the town's 125th birthday in 1996. She retired to Nebraska in 1999 and moved into the first floor apartment of the Rademacher-Kerssenbrock house in Crete.

Jody was proud of her heritage and noted her grandfather was the town constable who arrested Buffalo Bill Cody on Jan. 1, 1889, for public drunkenness.  She was involved with the Doane Family Association with roots going back to Deacon John Doane who settled in Plymouth, Massachusetts, between 1628-1632.  She served as regional vice president for DFA.     

Jody was a member of the Crete Wednesday Club and the Trinity Memorial Episcopal Church.   She was a substitute teacher, volunteered for Nebraska Public Radio and a board member of Saline County Habitat for Humanity.  She also volunteered at Blue Valley Community Action.  Jody took writing courses at Doane and had several historical stories published.  She created an endowed scholarship in her name at Doane University.  She was inducted into the Crete Public School Hall of Fame in 2016. 

Jody is preceded in death by her husbands, Don Sabath and Harold Hofreiter; stepchildren, Donlyn Sabath, David, Paul and Mary Hofreiter; her parents, George and Edith Kersenbrock;  step-mother, Ethel; her older sister, Janice Stone; and her younger brother, Paul. 

She is survived by her sister-in-law, Echo Easton, and her husband Geoff of Crete; nieces, Kim Mueller and her husband Rex of Papillion and their children, Ryan and Leslie Mueller; niece, Suzy Cochnar and her husband Jack of Dorchester and their children, Michael Cochnar and his wife Jessica (children Imogen, Ophelia and Marrs),Valerie, Alyssa and Nathan Cochnar; niece, Cindy Kersenbrock of Lawrence, Kansas and her children, Elliot Bicker, Naomi and her spouse Gaby Bauman and Clara Bicker. She is also survived by her niece, Julie Stone Eberly and her husband Rev. Dr. Wayne Eberly of Houston, Texas, and their four children Jake, Hayley, Carlee and Alex and their grandchildren Clara, Paul and Blake as well as many extended family members. 

A Celebration of Life will be Saturday, Feb. 4, at 11 a.m. at First Evangelical Lutheran Church in Wilber. The service will be streamed via the church YouTube channel. A service will also take place at the Wilber Care Center at 2 p.m. for staff and residents.

Memorial contributions are suggested to First Evangelical Lutheran Church of Wilber and to the Wilber Care Center. Arrangements by Kuncl Funeral Home.