Zena Kedalo Bierley – Mar 12, 2020

Zena Kedalo Bierley, age 96 of Quincy, California, formerly of Jamestown, North Dakota, died on March 12, 2020. Zena was preceded in death by her husband, Winfred Bierley, and three sisters, Lucille Doone, Lillian Hull, and Elanor O’Hern. She is survived by her three sons, Gary, Rex, and Calvin Bierley, and by her sister, Frances Pendray.

Zena was born in 1924 on a farm in Logan County, North Dakota. She graduated from Adrian high school in 1941 and then worked at a defense factory in Chicago, during World War II. She married Winfred Bierley on November 4, 1943 while he was on leave from the Army. When WWII ended, she and her husband purchased her father’s farm in Adrian Township and lived there until 1984 when they retired and moved to Jamestown, North Dakota. In 2015, she moved to California where she alternated living with her sons Gary and Rex.

Zena was an accomplished, self-taught seamstress and was also active in community and church functions (served as President of the LaMoure County Lady’s Home Club and President of the Nortonville Methodist Church Lady’s Auxiliary). Zena also enjoyed farm work and her son’s never bested her ability to construct a symmetrical and watertight haystack. She was devoted to her family and often told people that she was blessed to have had five good men in her life; her father, her husband, and her three sons. Her wisdom, compassion, forbearance, and perseverance in the face of adversity were models for others to follow. Above all, she was a kind and generous person who forgave quickly and then forgot transgressions.