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Jeannette was born in 1925 at the Sullivan Ranch on the South Fork of the Williams Fork River in Rio Blanco County, Colorado to Mary Rebecca Elizabeth Marshall Sullivan and Brendan Sullivan. She had two sisters (Mary and Cecilia) and ten brothers (Brendon, Pat, Roger, Tom, Francis, Byron Jon, Milton, Melvin, James, and Patrick Courtlyn). Jeannette grew up on the family ranch and attended school in Meeker, Colorado.
Jeannette received a Bachelor of Science degree in Pharmacy from the University of Colorado in Boulder. She was a pharmacy graduate student at Michigan State University where she performed graduate work under Dr. Jonas Salk who discovered the vaccine for polio. There she met George Joseph Gruber, another pharmacy graduate student, and they were married in 1951 at St. James Episcopal Church, Meeker, Colorado. Jeannette set aside her pharmacy career for 21 years while running the Gruber household and managing the development of her two sons George Patrick and Robert Kelvin. In 1972 Jeannette obtained her Wisconsin Pharmacy License and worked for twenty years as a full time and relief pharmacist in Wisconsin, California, Washington, and Colorado.
Jeannette and George lived throughout the United States:
1951 - 1953 San Juan, Puerto Rico
1953 - 1955 Seattle, Washington
1955 - 1957 Savannah, Georgia
1957 - 1961 Santa Venetia, California (just north of San Rafael)
1961 - 1962 Springfield, Missouri
1962 - 1964 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
1964 - 1966 Silver Springs, Maryland
1966 - 1968 Rockville, Maryland
1968 - 1970 Redding, California
1970 - 1980 Sheboygan, Wisconsin
1980 - 1981 Sacramento, California
1981 - 1982 Seattle, Washington
1982 - 1998 Colorado Springs, Colorado
1998 - 2004 Aurora, Colorado
2004 - 2013 Littleton, Colorado
Jeannette and George had many dogs:
1956 Erfie (puppy found on an uninhabited island near Savannah by a railroad worker-
neighbor)
1960 - 1972 Alvin (springer spaniel)
1978 - 1990 Loveable Sam (english spaniel) and Goldie (cocker spaniel)
1990 - 2000 Charlie Brown (west highland terrier)
1991 - 2003 Lucy (west highland terrier)
2002 - 2012 Annie (black Labrador)
2004 - 2013 Charlie 2 (west highland terrier)
Jeannette and George were active with their church and in the communities where they lived including soup kitchens, blood drives, work with the less fortunate, and acting as election voting judges. Jeannette and George were members of Heritage United Methodist Church in Littleton, Colorado.
Jeannette's husband George preceded her in death earlier this year just days before their 62nd wedding anniversary.
Jeannette is survived by two brothers: Francis and Melvin Sullivan, two sons: George and Robert Gruber; and grandson Nicholas Gruber.
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