Jean Lambertson
July 14, 1926 - March 12, 2017
Born Betty Jean Smith to Canadian parents, Jean grew up in DeKalb, Illinois. She was a precocious and adventuresome young lady who had a lifelong love of reading. After receiving her bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, Jean moved west to study dietetics at the University of California at Berkeley.
In California she met her future husband Glen Lambertson, a World War II veteran and an accelerator physicist at U.C.’s Lawrence Berkeley Lab; they married in 1950. Jean worked as a dietician at Herrick Hospital in Berkeley for nine years. After having children she devoted herself to volunteering for a variety of organizations, often in positions of leadership. Over the years, she would work for the League of Women Voters, the Coral Branch of Children’s Hospital, The Oakland Symphony Guild and the East Bay Opera League, the Oakland Museum, the Bellevue Club, as well as for various socially progressive political campaigns.
Glen’s career would take the family to Brookhaven, New York, and Geneva Switzerland. Even with three young children they took time to travel around Europe, while living in Geneva. They settled in Oakland. Jean was P.T.A. president, a Cub Scout Den Leader and Campfire Girls Leader.
Jean was creative and inspired in decorating and especially in cooking. She was a founding member of a gourmet club in the 1960’s and had an excellent reputation for entertaining. Jean and Glen would often invite foreign visiting professors and students for dinner, and interesting conversations would ensue. She loved decorating her Art Deco-era home, where she would live for 43 years. A voracious reader, she also produced a few bits of lively and entertaining writing. We wish she had written more.
In the 1970’s and 1980’s, with her business partner Kathleen Costello, Jean would own and operate an antique store in Orinda. They gave it the whimsical name “Cabbages and Kings,” after a phrase in a Lewis Carroll poem. After closing the store Jean continued to run estate sales and deal in antiques until she was 80.
Jean was an avid bridge player, and also enjoyed the outdoor pursuits of gardening, tennis, and skiing. After Glen retired, the couple would enjoy traveling to many foreign lands including China, Japan, New Zealand, France, Germany, the former Yugoslavia, Romania, Italy, England, Turkey, Peru, and Chile.
Jean was devoted to her family and was a loving grandmother to seven grandchildren. She would attend their performances at school, and graduations, and would always have an interesting craft or cooking project to do at her house.
Jean is survived by her husband of 67 years Glen Lambertson, sisters Margaret Joy Daentl and Mary Lea Murphy, children Tali Pinkham and her husband Daniel Pinkham, Roy Lambertson and his wife Leah Lambertson, and Dean Lambertson and his wife Mary Gaines, grandchildren Hannah Pinkham, Claire Pinkham, Andrew Pinkham, Clayton Lambertson, Elena Lambertson, Kelly Lambertson, and Trevor Lambertson.
We will always miss Grandma Jean’s playfulness and generosity, and her clever and witty good nature. She was the best.
A memorial service is planned; please contact a family member.