Jean T. Conger

Jean Tastrom Conger, born March 12, 1941 in Brooklyn, New York, passed away on December 11, 2022 in San Jose, California, following a cerebral hemorrhage. Teacher, principal, actor and activist during and after the second wave of feminism, Jean never quite fit the molds of her time, and said she always preferred “coloring outside of the lines.” She married and divorced twice before coming out as a lesbian in the 1970s. In 2016, after being together for 32 years, she married her greatest love and partner, Lauren L. Jardine, an act of love, and of protest. She focused her life and career on furthering the aims of equality and justice, wherever she happened to be. In so many ways, in all of her many roles and work contexts, Jean worked to empower people, which she accomplished with a great sense of purpose, and with great joy. Jean is predeceased by her parents, Herbert V. Tastrom and Audrey Trimble Tastrom, and by her younger brother Ricky Tastrom. She is survived by her wife, Lauren; her children, Catherine T. Keating and husband Tom Meyer, Nancy Jean Hancock and husband Simon Hancock, and Michael Christopher Keating and wife Jessica Ellis; and her stepdaughters Katie Watson and husband Jason, and Kirsten Kruer. She is mourned by her siblings, Vic Tastrom, Judith Ann Gregg, Gil Tastrom, Deborah Lynn and Joe Tastrom and cousins Barbara Bent and Tina Trimble Savoy. She will always be Tutu Jean to her grandchildren, Zach and Allie Vanatter and Connor, Colin and Logan Watson.