Jacqueline S. Stromberg

Jacqueline Stromberg (85) of Brattleboro, Vermont passed away peacefully on August 21, 2024, with her loving family by her side in the comfort of their home.

She was born on June 23, 1939, in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, and later moved to Newington, Connecticut, then Terryville, Connecticut. The granddaughter of a Lithuanian coal miner and child of Lithuanian-American parents (her father started in the mines but moved the family to Connecticut), she treasured her Lithuanian heritage and passed the traditions, food and culture on to her children. Kerry and Christian spent each summer as campers and eventually counselors at Neringa, the Lithuanian heritage camp in Marlboro, Vermont, which their own children have made a part of their lives. Jackie grew up working in the office of her family’s manufacturing business, and continued to help there for many years. After graduating from Newington High School in Newington, Connecticut, she was the first of her family to attend college, graduating with a business degree from Bryant University in Providence. A successful and respected realtor for over thirty years in Connecticut, she received numerous awards and honors. She served as President of the Bristol Board of Realtors, Regional Vice President of the Connecticut Association of Realtors for five terms, and State Political Fundraising Chairman for the state association. 

Jackie engaged in extensive civic and volunteer activities in Connecticut. She was active in the Republican party, served as President (and was repeated Woman of the Year) of the Woman’s Club of Terryville, and was a mentor in the Plymouth school system. She continued her community contributions after moving to Brattleboro in 2005 to be with her children and their families. She was a town representative, served on the cemetery committee and town finance committee, and was active at St. Michael’s Catholic Church and in Brigid’s Kitchen. 

Jackie had spirit and grit. A single mother after an early divorce, she worked hard to balance being a busy realtor with attending and cheering with embarrassing volume at her children’s athletic events and other activities. Years later her adult children offered her a chance to show her determination with the gift of a week on an Outward Bound program. Decades older than both the students and leaders, Jackie chose a canoe trip, thinking it sounded easier than hiking but not realizing that when not paddling into the wind, she would have to carry the canoe across land. She endured a week of endless lightning, wind, and rain, and came out with stories and a big grin. Her grit was also evident as a committed but lonely “small business Republican” in a sea of well-intentioned but misguided Vermont liberals.

Jackie was fun and funny, kind, irreverent, and down-to-earth. She was a gracious hostess and enjoyed entertaining at her home. She gave of herself daily, not just to the community but especially to friends and family, and was a linchpin connecting extended family throughout the country. She was integral to the lives of her grandchildren in Vermont, helping to raise them from infants to the good young people they have become. In an often unsuccessful years-long effort to have her grandchildren learn to enjoy all food on their plates, she enforced a strict “no thank you helping” rule that her grandchildren endured, as had their parents. 

Jackie loved the beach, world travel, and the many, many lifelong friendships she worked diligently to maintain. “Consider yourself hugged,” she would say at the end of those phone calls.

In a beautiful development, she was able to reconnect in later years with the child she had given up for adoption in her youth, and was blessed to welcome Greg and his family into her life.

A person of devout faith, Jackie ends this earthly life survived by her daughter, Kerry Secrest, Kerry’s husband Jonathan Secrest, and their children, Alina and Aleksa. She leaves her son, Christian Stromberg and his children, Leland and Gretchen. She also leaves her son Greg Mastrianni and his wife Ursula, and their children, Avery and Cecilia. Predeceased by her parents, John and Albina Shenuski and her brother, Gary Shenuski, she is survived by her brother, Dennis Shenuski and his daughters, Leah Moran and Corin Pesci, by her nephew, John Morton, and by many beloved cousins.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be given in her name to St. Brigid’s Kitchen and Pantry in Brattleboro.https://stmichaelvt.com/st-brigids-kitchen

Saturday, August 24, (Vermont) there will be calling hours from 10 a.m.-12 p.m. at The Phaneuf Funeral Home, 57 High St, Brattleboro, a funeral mass at St. Michaels Catholic Church at 1 p.m., followed by a reception. On Monday, August 26, (Connecticut) there will be calling hours from 10 a.m-12 p.m. at Scotts Funeral Home, 169 Main Street, Terryville, followed by a burial at St. Mary’s Cemetery and a reception. Family and friends are kindly invited to attend.