Jeanine Mireille BOUSCHARAIN

  General Notes:

Jeanine Mireille Francoise Fiechter was born December 2, 1924 in Switzerland to Juliette and Pierre Bouscharain. Her father was with the League of Nations in Geneva. In 1940, when the League of Nations ended, her father was called back to France. The family survived the German occupation. Her father worked in the french social ministry alleviating the plight of the country's homeless and orphaned children. Jeanine and her sister Claude worked in the American Red Cross and aided the resistance.

At the end of the war she came to New York with her father who was part of the French delegation to the newly created United Nations. While on the crossing to America, she met Rene Fiechter. Four months later they were married in the French Huguenot Church on Park Avenue and a year later, in 1948, she gave birth to their first son, Rene. In 1952 they bought their home on Hollywood Avenue where they have lived ever since. On Easter Sunday, 1957, Jeanine and Rene joined the Community Church along with their friends from Switzerland, Claire and Pierre Savary.

In the years to come Jean Nicolas, Caline, and Michel were born. The family has grown as Rene-Pierre married Eileen Callahan, Jean married Denise, Caline married Quentin Thomas, and Michel married Lynn Kiley. There are six grandchildren, Jonathan and Natasha Fiechter; Jasper, Annick, and Julian Thomas; and most recently, James Rene Fiechter.

Jeanine and Rene had always assumed they would return to Europe, but Douglaston and America won them over. A few years ago she became a US citizen. She loved this town, its people and her Church. She never sought to lead or to be praised, preferring simply to help others, tirelessly and selflessly. Jeanine's passions were family, church, culinary magic, and gardening. She was active in the Women's Guild, the Garden Club, the Visiting Nurses, and yes, was even a "captive" in the Brotherhood of the Coast.

Jeanine died on April 10,2001 in her home, her long and difficult ordeal with Cortico Basal Ganglionic Degeneration finally over. She leaves a legacy of love for all who knew her.
--Rene P. Fiechter

Jeanine married René Marie Archibald (Zic) FIECHTER, son of Jacques René FIECHTER and Countess Maria Nickolaevna OCHANOFF, on 24 Apr 1947 in Huguenot Church, Park Avenue, New-York, USA. (René Marie Archibald (Zic) FIECHTER was born on 25 Sep 1919 in Lausanne, Switzerland and died on 13 Jun 2009 in Douglaston, New York, USA.)